Congratulations 2023 Eye Pitch winners!

Judges' choice winner

Henry Shin, PhD (CEO, Excitant Therapeutics)
Pitch title: PPAR-alpha oral pharmacotherapy for diabetic retinal diseases

Summary: Millions of people with diabetic retinal diseases rely on invasive and insufficient anti-VEGF eye injections. However, high attrition rates for anti-VEGF therapies demand a more sustainable solution for improved clinical outcomes. Excitant is developing a novel oral therapy to fill that gap with a new approach outside of VEGF.

Audience choice winner

Manuel Opitz, MsC, MBA (Co-Founder and CEO, deepeye Medical GmbH)
Pitch title: Can you double adherence and triple vision outcomes in anti-VEGF therapy?

Summary: Which anti-VEGF drug is the best for each patient? How many injections? When? deepeye supports ophthalmologists in making such decisions by predicting the individual treatment need over the coming years and how each patient might react to different therapeutics. The AI-based in-office “therapy navigator” integrates with major OCT imaging softwares.

Eye Pitch Session

*The 2023 Eye Pitch call for submissions is closed. 

The Bench to Bedside (B2B) Organizing Committee invites submissions of great ideas for new treatments, drugs or devices to be pitched to a panel of experts during the in-person B2B Meeting, hosted prior to the ARVO Annual Meeting. If you have an entrepreneurial mindset and little to no experience moving an idea forward through the pipeline, this session is for you.

If your pitch is selected, you will take part in a learning session with a panel of experts where you will present your 5- to 6-minute pitch for feedback.

At the end of the pitch session the expert panel will take part in a Q&A with the audience.

Additional pitches will be available to view during a Networking Reception at the end of the day.

Eligibility for Eye Pitch submission

Anyone with a great idea for a new treatment, drug or device in eye and vision research can submit a pitch. The organizing committee is especially interested in hearing about ideas and products in the early- to mid-development pipeline. Submitters do not need to be ARVO members, but are expected to register for the B2B Meeting and present the work if selected. Everyone can submit one idea for consideration. Five proposals will be accepted. 

Note: The B2B Meeting Committee expects that any ideas presented are already protected by appropriate patent applications. Past Eye pitch winners are ineligible to resubmit their winning proposal. Individuals who have submitted a proposal in the past but were not selected, are eligible to resubmit an updated proposal.