Eichenbaum Acorns: From clinic to C-suite with Jay S. Duker, MD, and Ramiro Ribeiro, MD, PhD

Eichenbaum Acorns is an editorially independent series powered by Modern Retina and hosted by David A. Eichenbaum, MD, FASRS, partner and director of research at Retina Vitreous Associates of Florida. This podcast series explores the overlooked corners of the retina profession through candid conversations with thought leaders. Eichenbaum is the Yiddish word for oak tree, and the aim of this series is to plant acorns of insight that grow into oaks of understanding.

In this episode, Eichenbaum speaks with Jay S. Duker, MD, president and CEO of EyePoint Pharmaceuticals and a board director, and Ramiro Ribeiro, MD, PhD, chief medical officer of EyePoint Pharmaceuticals, about the professional decisions that led each of them from clinical and academic training into pharmaceutical leadership—and what they have learned along the way.

Two paths into industry

Ribeiro completed his retina fellowship in Brazil before coming to the US for a postdoctoral position at the University of Southern California with Mark Humayun, MD. That experience, Ribeiro says, opened his perspective on the scope of work possible in basic and clinical research. After approximately 2 years, Ribeiro made an initial move into industry, joining a small startup focused on an accommodative IOL for cataract—a challenging early project that confirmed his direction.

"I just fell in love," Ribeiro says of the transition. What drew him in was the breadth of collaboration: Working alongside engineers, biostatisticians, clinical operations specialists, and commercial teams, all with backgrounds different from his own clinical training. Ribeiro notes that the decision felt manageable in part because the option to return to clinical practice remained available. "As trained clinicians, at the end of the day, we can always go back to clinical practice."

Duker's path into industry followed a longer arc in academic medicine. He spent 21 years as chair of ophthalmology at Tufts New England Eye Center, where he and colleagues also cofounded Hemera Biosciences, a gene therapy company focused on dry age-related macular degeneration that was developed nights and weekends alongside his academic responsibilities. After more than a decade, Hemera Biosciences was acquired by Johnson & Johnson. That experience, Duker says, gave him a lasting interest in drug development.

"It was really [interesting] to think about the pathway from an idea and a concept in the laboratory to actually getting into humans." He joined what is now EyePoint Pharmaceuticals initially as a board member in 2016, moved to a part-time strategic role, and transitioned to full-time chief executive approximately 5 years ago. He continues to see a small number of patients at Tufts.

Making decisions with incomplete information

Both guests describe the appeal of industry as rooted in its pace and complexity. Ribeiro points to the intellectual demands of making decisions under uncertainty—designing studies, interpreting early data, planning larger trials, and navigating regulatory submissions—as both the defining challenge and the primary reward of his role. "Each of those steps, they're quite dynamic, they're quite different," he says. "It brings a lot of creativity into our workplace."

Duker echoes that framing. In clinical practice, he notes, feedback is often immediate—a surgical outcome is apparent quickly. In industry, the equivalent satisfaction is longer in coming: the sense, after years of work and setbacks, that a plan held together. "I love when a plan comes together," he says, referencing the eventual convergence of team effort, trial execution, and data. The hardest part, both agree, is making high-stakes decisions on the basis of incomplete information.

What comes next

Looking ahead, Ribeiro describes EyePoint Pharmaceuticals' sustained-release intravitreal implant delivering vorolanib (Duravyu)—currently in phase 3 trials—as a central near-term priority, but frames it as the beginning rather than the end of the company's work. With a clinical and medical affairs team built out over several years and established relationships within the retina community, he sees a platform capable of supporting additional indications and assets beyond the current program. "Hopefully it's going to be the first one," he says of the investigational implant.

Duker adds that he anticipates the company will develop a robust pipeline centered on drug delivery, though not limited to current technology or a single delivery approach. As for his own future, he is direct: "I'm not done yet."

Eichenbaum closes the conversation by reflecting on what the episode represents for the series—a look at career paths that diverge from clinical practice without abandoning the field entirely. For younger retina specialists considering similar moves, both guests suggest the transition is less a departure than an extension: a different way of serving patients, operating at a different scale, and finding different kinds of problems worth solving.