Clearside Biomedical, Inc. announced that Benjamin R. Yerxa, Ph.D., has been appointed to the Company's Board of Directors, effective March 2, 2022. Dr. Yerxa currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation Fighting Blindness, the world's leading private funding source for retinal degenerative disease research. Benjamin R. Yerxa, Ph.D., has more than 25 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology leadership experience in the fields of ophthalmology, pulmonary, rare disease, cardiovascular and HIV, from drug discovery through product launches.

He currently serves as CEO of the Foundation Fighting Blindness. Dr. Yerxa has served in senior leadership roles in multiple public and private ophthalmology companies and has been involved with the discovery and development of numerous Investigational New Drug Applications, Phase 3 clinical programs, New Drug Applications, drug approvals and product launches. He is also an entrepreneur with more than 50 issued U.S. patents.

Dr. Yerxa serves on the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and several private ophthalmic companies, including Nacuity Pharmaceuticals and Sparing Vision.