ALPHARETTA, Ga.—Clearside Biomedical (NASDAQ:CLSD), a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing treatments that restore and preserve vision for people with serious eye diseases, has appointed George Lasezkay, PharmD, JD, as interim chief executive officer, effective immediately, according to an announcement Monday. Lasezkay, a current member of Clearside’s board of directors, succeeds Daniel H. White, who resigned as president, chief executive officer and a board member to pursue other opportunities, the announcement noted. Clearside’s board is initiating a search to identify a permanent chief executive officer.

William Humphries, chairman of the board, said in the announcement, “We believe there is tremendous potential in our proprietary suprachoroidal space (SCS) injection platform, as evidenced by the acceptance of our New Drug Application (NDA) for Xipere (triamcinolone acetonide ophthalmic suspension) for suprachoroidal injection. We want to thank Daniel for his visionary contributions, including licensing the original scientific technology, building our versatile therapeutic platform, leading our IPO and other financings, and hiring an experienced team to bring these important innovative products to market.”

Lasezkay said the company is excited about its suprachoroidal drug delivery platform and potential approval of its first agent for the treatment of macular edema associated with uveitis. “We also believe the platform has broad applicability in other eye diseases and continue to explore utilizing suprachoroidal administration with other small molecules and gene therapy,” Lasezkay said in the announcement.

Lasezkay has an accomplished history of success in the life sciences industry and for the past 15 years has served as an independent director on the boards of a number of domestic and foreign emerging biopharmaceutical companies, including Clearside. Previously, he served as executive vice president and general counsel at Acucela Inc., a development stage company that specializes in identifying and developing novel ophthalmic therapeutics.