Ocuphire Pharma, Inc. announced that on December 1,2023, the Board of Directors of the Company promoted Ronil Patel, age 40, as the Company?s Chief Business Officer, effective as of December 1, 2023. Prior to obtaining this position, Mr. Patel served in various roles with the Company, including as its Senior Vice President of Operations and Business Development with the Company from April 2023 through November 2023, its Vice President of Business Development and Market Strategy from November 2022 to April 2023, its Senior Director of Business Development and Market Strategy from July 2021 to November 2022, and its Consultant from February 2021 to July 2021. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Patel worked at Point Guard Partners where he led business development and project management from August 2012 to April 2021.

Mr. Patel has 15 years of experience in medical research, including biotech R&D, and pharmaceutical business development. He has been in ophthalmology since 2012 and has managed the clinical development of multiple late-stage clinical assets with five products receiving FDA approval and are currently being commercialized in the United States. Mr. Patel?s global business development experience involves in-licensing clinical stage assets for development in the United States.

Mr. Patel has been involved in several start-up companies that have collectively raised over $25 million in funding and exit deals valued at over $300 million. Prior to 2012, Mr. Patel worked as a research scientist in drug discovery and delivery areas of oncology and infectious disease. Mr. Patel holds a Master of Science degree with specialization in Biotechnology from Florida Institute of Technology.