Management Team
The commercial success of any therapy depends not just on the science but on the people who bring these innovative treatments to market. Our talented, passionate management team holds years of experience in building pharmaceutical companies, designing clinical studies, performing pre-clinical research, and launching and marketing products. We equally value our long-standing relationships with the ophthalmic community and our strong connections with key strategic and financial partners. Collectively, the Allegro team possesses the hard-won knowledge of what it takes to get a product across the finish line, into the hands of physicians, and in patients’ care regimens.
Dr. Karageozian is an industry veteran in ophthalmic drug development with more than 25 years of experience building, leading, and fundraising companies in the ophthalmic pharmaceutical space. An ophthalmic surgeon by training, Dr. Karageozian is the co-founder of three ophthalmic biotech companies since 1993, including ISTA Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Vitreoretinal Technologies, Inc., and Allegro Ophthalmics, LLC. He has been the inventor or co-inventor of numerous ophthalmic pharmaceuticals with more than 82 patents issued on his drug discoveries. His co-inventions include some of the first enzymatic, osmotic, and integrin-based treatments for the eye and some of the earliest work in intravitreal injections (Vitrase®). Dr. Karageozian has been instrumental in securing over $240M in aggregate venture and institutional capital and corporate partnerships for these companies.
Dr. Karageozian has led the business execution, clinical development, and regulatory strategy on numerous ophthalmic pharmaceuticals, including several negotiated novel endpoints for first in class drugs, and has led numerous Phase 1, 2, and 3 ophthalmic clinical programs across the US, EU, Asia, and Latin America.
As a senior executive at Allegro, Dr. Karageozian has extensive experience in formulating and leading the corporate strategy, execution, fundraising, and business development efforts. Throughout his ventures, Dr. Karageozian has led numerous successful licensing transactions, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions and IPOs across the US, Asia, and Latin America. This includes the successful IPO of ISTA Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Dr. Karageozian graduated from the University of California, San Diego with degrees in biochemistry and cellular biology and received his medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. After completing an internship at UCLA, he completed his ophthalmology residency at the University of California, Irvine.
Mr. Karageozian has over 47 years of distinguished service in ophthalmic drug development. During his career, Mr. Karageozian has brought over 30 ophthalmic drugs to market and is an author or co-author of more than 150 worldwide issued patents. Mr. Karageozian is the co-founder and Chief Technical Officer of Allegro Ophthalmics. Previously, Mr. Karageozian was the co-founder and CTO of ISTA Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and served as CEO at Allegro, PrimaPharma, Inc., S K Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Vitreoretinal Technologies, Inc. He has previously raised numerous rounds of venture capital funding for several of these companies, as well as active involvement in the initial public offering of ISTA Pharmaceuticals.
Prior to co-founding PrimaPharma, Inc., Mr. Karageozian spent 23 years at Allergan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in senior management positions, including corporate head of research and development. Mr. Karageozian’s extensive experience and expertise spans well beyond research and development to include drug discovery and development, domestic and international regulatory affairs, clinical studies, and API and finished product manufacturing.
Mr. Karageozian received his BSc in Pharmacy from American University of Beirut, his MSc in Biochemistry from MIT, and his MBA from the University of California, Irvine.
Dr. Park leads the drug discovery, product development, and manufacturing process development activities in support of Allegro’s drug development platforms.
Dr. Park’s long history of bringing ophthalmic drugs from concept to market that spans four decades and covers drug discovery, research and development, as well as product development. In addition, he is a prolific inventor with more than 40 patents and peer-reviewed publications of which he is an author or co-author.
Dr. Park’s biotech development experience includes the co-founding of two additional biotech companies: SK Pharmaceuticals and Vitreoretinal Technologies, Inc. For more than 20 years, Dr. Park served in executive level positions at these two companies as well as at ISTA Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for product development, manufacturing and quality control. Before that, Dr. Park spent 16 years with Allergan Pharmaceuticals as principle research scientist.
At Allergan, Dr. Park conceived product ideas on potential anti-cataract drugs and novel concepts of making liposome drug delivery systems without the use of organic solvents. He initiated, executed and successfully developed commercially viable products. In addition, Dr. Park was responsible for the discovery of a novel oxidative disinfectant system employing a polymeric sustained drug delivery system, which was successfully developed into a number of commercial products generating over $1 billion in product sales and which led Allergan to present him with its “Patent of the Year” award.
Dr. Park was a Postdoctoral Fellow at California Institute of Technology after receiving his PhD in Physical Chemistry at the University of Houston. He received his MS in organic chemistry from Louisiana Tech and his BS in chemistry and physics from Yon Sei University in Seoul, Korea.