Martin B. Wax

Martin B. Wax M.D. is a clinician-scientist and pharmaceutical industry executive. Dr. Wax was the co-founder and Chief Medical Officer/Executive Vice-President of R&D at PanOptica, Inc., a private biotechnology company specializing in ophthalmic pharmaceuticals, from 2009-2019 where he developed a topical anti-VEGF eye drop for wet AMD that is currently licensed to a Chinese pharmaceutical company for an undisclosed sum. Prior to that, he was Vice President of R&D and Head of Ophthalmology Discovery Research and Preclinical Sciences at Alcon Laboratories in Ft. Worth, Texas from 2003-2008 where he was responsible for the creation and development of the Alcon pharmaceutical portfolio of compounds for the therapeutic areas of glaucoma, retina, allergy, dry eye and anti-infectives. Prior to entering industry as the head of Ophthalmology Research at Pharmacia Corporation in 2002, he held the distinguished Research to Prevent Blindness Chair as a Professor of Ophthalmology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO.

Dr. Wax has chaired numerous national and international commercial advisory boards for industry sponsors throughout his academic and industry career and has coauthored more than 200 publications including peer-reviewed articles, abstracts and chapter in books and is an internationally recognized scientific expert in the field of glaucoma. His research has focused on the cell biology of aqueous humor formation and the role of the immune system in glaucomatous optic neuropathy.

Dr. Wax received his medical degree from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He completed his residency in Ophthalmology at Wills Eye Hospital in Pennsylvania and was a postdoctoral fellow first in Neuropharmacology and then in Glaucoma at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia.