Description:

A Tale of Two Companies

In my talk I will share my experiences of solving real medical problems using biomaterials based technology. Two of the companies that I founded in the last decade will be highlighted, Ocular Therapeutix and Augmenix. I will explore the motivation behind these efforts, i.e. the problem to be solved, the solutions and products that we created, the execution process of team building and financing and including the final process of taking them to market and affecting real change in patients’ lives.

Biography: Amarpreet Sawhney is the President and Chairman of Instylla, Executive Chairman of Ocular Therapeutix, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCUL) and Chairman of Augmenix, Inc. Instylla is focused on embolic therapies for tumors, Ocular Therapeutix on solving unmet needs in ophthalmic drug delivery and Augmenix on improving outcomes and targeting of radiotherapy. Prior to this he was Founder and CEO of Confluent Surgical, a biosurgery company, based in Waltham, MA. Confluent was acquired by Covidien. Before Confluent, Dr. Sawhney was the technology founder of Focal, Inc. (acquired by Genzyme) and of Access Closure, Inc. (acquired by Cardinal Health). Dr. Sawhney’s innovations are the subject of over 120 issued and pending patents in biomaterials and bio-surgery. His inventions include several “first of a kind” surgical sealants and spacers to be approved by the United States FDA.

In addition to being an entrepreneur Amar, has also created a platform to support other entrepreneurs via Incept LLC, that seeks to enable healthcare entrepreneurs. Incept portfolio companies additionally include, Embolic Protection, Endo-Tex, Apama Medical, and Sadra Medical (all acquired by Boston Scientific), Access Closure, Inc. (acquired by Cardinal Health), Hotspur, Inc (acquired by Teleflex), Ostial LLC, and Imperative Health in California, Axtria and MarketRx in New Jersey (acquired by Cognizant), Maya Medical (acquired by Covidien), and Neurolutions in St. Louis. Amar currently serves on the board of directors of EcoSikh, Axtria, Imperative Health, Augmenix and Ocular Therapeutix, Through his family Foundation, Amar has been active in charitable causes that are dear to him, which include education as well as wildlife and the environment.

Dr. Sawhney has been recognized by several awards including being named the “Champion of Change” by the Whitehouse and “Outstanding American by Choice” by the US Citizenship and Immigration Service, “Five most innovative Medical Device CEOs” by MassDevice, MassMedic best startup company award, Frost and Sullivan Product innovation award, MIT Global Indus Technovators Award, the E&Y regional entrepreneur of the year award, Mass High Tech All Star award, The Immigrant Entrepreneur Award, Indian Institute of Delhi Distinguished Alumni Award, and the University of Texas Outstanding Young Engineering Graduate award, and the New England Choice Award for Entrepreneurship. Dr. Sawhney’s companies and inventions have touched over 5 million patients and have created over 2000 jobs to date.

Dr. Sawhney holds an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and a B. Tech. in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.