Unblinded: The Start-Up That Launched a Revolution in Saving Sight - Hardcover
Pay over time for orders over $35.00 with
A life-altering revolution has happened right before your eyes. Yet for a generation, it has been largely invisible.
Unblinded is the never-before-heard origin story of intravitreal, anti-VEGF therapies for macular degeneration, and other retinal diseases, and the start-up company that changed the future of eyecare.
In the 1990s, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) was the leading cause of blindness in the developed world, with no effective treatments. The disease became known for robbing its elderly victims of their central vision and the opportunity to age gracefully, leaving them with the fear of going blind. Today, this is no longer the case for most people.
Going against the grain, three young eye doctors challenged the prevailing views of the ophthalmological establishment and formed a start-up drug company, Eyetech, in 2000 to develop the first anti-VEGF therapy, Macugen. David Guyer, MD, a New York academic; Tony Adamis, MD, a medical research scientist in Boston; and Samir Patel, MD, a leading surgeon based in Chicago, joined forces to refocus the pharmaceutical industry's attention from the front of the eye to the back. This team successfully overcame enormous hurdles to create a therapeutic approach from scratch that, as of 2025, represents >$15bn of revenue in one of the highest billed procedures on Medicare.
In Unblinded, you'll discover how a trio of doctors stepped out of their comfort zones into a world where groundbreaking biotechnology tussles with multimillion-dollar risk-taking--often amid financial market turmoil. Despite the turbulence of their journey, David, Samir, Tony, and their many contemporaries have never taken their eyes off the ultimate prize--improving sight.
Proceeds from the book go to the non-profit, Wise Eyes Foundation, with a mission to reduce the unmet need in large population retinal diseases through research and patient support.
DAVID R. GUYER, MD
David is a retina specialist, a highly successful serial entrepreneur, and has been CEO of multiple public and private companies. He has seen vision research from the perspectives of academia, biotech, venture capital, and Big Pharma.
David has cofounded three biotech companies-- Eyetech, Ophthotech (later known as Iveric Bio), and EyeBio, leading them all as CEO. All three have been successfully acquired, with two of the companies completing huge IPOs. David currently serves as the CEO and president of EyeBio, now a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc.
When he is not exploring potential new retinal therapies or starting or running new companies, David enjoys working out and has run five marathons. An avid traveler, he has been to all 50 states in the US and approximately 100 countries where he often seeks exciting culinary experiences--especially extremely spicy foods--which he loves to share with his wife Maria and two sons, Luca and Oliver.
Keldoulis, Ian: -IAN KELDOULIS
Ian is an Australian writer who has published stories in The New York Times, Harper's Bazaar, and other media outlets before going on to work in advertising, eventually running his own agency and winning ten awards for multimillion-dollar campaigns for numerous clients. As a screenwriter, his scripts for film and TV have won numerous awards at film festivals around the world.
Ian serves on the board of Downey Side, an adoption agency that gives school-age foster children a chance to be in loving, permanent families. He is also on the board of the Bronx Independent Cinema Center, advocating for a vibrant cultural hub and filmmaker incubator in a borough long overlooked by the film industry.
Ian prefers shade to sunshine and crowded sidewalks to the outback. His favorite sport isn't cricket or rugby but people-watching. So, it's just as well that he's been transplanted to New York City for almost four decades.
Contributor(s)
Author
Free shipping on orders over $75. Standard shipping takes 3-7 business days. Returns accepted within 30 days of purchase.
A life-altering revolution has happened right before your eyes. Yet for a generation, it has been largely invisible.
Unblinded is the never-before-heard origin story of intravitreal, anti-VEGF therapies for macular degeneration, and other retinal diseases, and the start-up company that changed the future of eyecare.
In the 1990s, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) was the leading cause of blindness in the developed world, with no effective treatments. The disease became known for robbing its elderly victims of their central vision and the opportunity to age gracefully, leaving them with the fear of going blind. Today, this is no longer the case for most people.
Going against the grain, three young eye doctors challenged the prevailing views of the ophthalmological establishment and formed a start-up drug company, Eyetech, in 2000 to develop the first anti-VEGF therapy, Macugen. David Guyer, MD, a New York academic; Tony Adamis, MD, a medical research scientist in Boston; and Samir Patel, MD, a leading surgeon based in Chicago, joined forces to refocus the pharmaceutical industry's attention from the front of the eye to the back. This team successfully overcame enormous hurdles to create a therapeutic approach from scratch that, as of 2025, represents >$15bn of revenue in one of the highest billed procedures on Medicare.
In Unblinded, you'll discover how a trio of doctors stepped out of their comfort zones into a world where groundbreaking biotechnology tussles with multimillion-dollar risk-taking--often amid financial market turmoil. Despite the turbulence of their journey, David, Samir, Tony, and their many contemporaries have never taken their eyes off the ultimate prize--improving sight.
Proceeds from the book go to the non-profit, Wise Eyes Foundation, with a mission to reduce the unmet need in large population retinal diseases through research and patient support.
DAVID R. GUYER, MD
David is a retina specialist, a highly successful serial entrepreneur, and has been CEO of multiple public and private companies. He has seen vision research from the perspectives of academia, biotech, venture capital, and Big Pharma.
David has cofounded three biotech companies-- Eyetech, Ophthotech (later known as Iveric Bio), and EyeBio, leading them all as CEO. All three have been successfully acquired, with two of the companies completing huge IPOs. David currently serves as the CEO and president of EyeBio, now a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc.
When he is not exploring potential new retinal therapies or starting or running new companies, David enjoys working out and has run five marathons. An avid traveler, he has been to all 50 states in the US and approximately 100 countries where he often seeks exciting culinary experiences--especially extremely spicy foods--which he loves to share with his wife Maria and two sons, Luca and Oliver.
Keldoulis, Ian: -IAN KELDOULIS
Ian is an Australian writer who has published stories in The New York Times, Harper's Bazaar, and other media outlets before going on to work in advertising, eventually running his own agency and winning ten awards for multimillion-dollar campaigns for numerous clients. As a screenwriter, his scripts for film and TV have won numerous awards at film festivals around the world.
Ian serves on the board of Downey Side, an adoption agency that gives school-age foster children a chance to be in loving, permanent families. He is also on the board of the Bronx Independent Cinema Center, advocating for a vibrant cultural hub and filmmaker incubator in a borough long overlooked by the film industry.
Ian prefers shade to sunshine and crowded sidewalks to the outback. His favorite sport isn't cricket or rugby but people-watching. So, it's just as well that he's been transplanted to New York City for almost four decades.
Contributor(s)
Author