Unblinded

The Start-Up That Launched a Revolution in Saving Sight

by Dr. David Guyer & Ian Keldoulis

A life-altering revolution has happened right before your eyes. Yet for a generation, it has
been largely invisible.

Unblinded is the never-before-heard origin story of intravitreal, anti-VEGF therapies for
macular degeneration, and other retinal diseases, and the start-up company that
changed the future of eyecare.

In the 1990s, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) was the leading cause of blindness in
the developed world, with no effective treatments. The disease became known for robbing its
elderly victims of their central vision and the opportunity to age gracefully, leaving them with the
fear of going blind. Today, this is no longer the case for most people.

Going against the grain, three young eye doctors challenged the prevailing views of the
ophthalmological establishment and formed a start-up drug company, Eyetech, in 2000 to
develop the first anti-VEGF therapy, Macugen. David Guyer, MD, a New York academic; Tony
Adamis, MD, a medical research scientist in Boston; and Samir Patel, MD, a leading surgeon
based in Chicago, joined forces to refocus the pharmaceutical industry’s attention from the front
of the eye to the back. This team successfully overcame enormous hurdles to create a
therapeutic approach from scratch that, as of 2025, represents >$15bn of revenue in one of the highest billed procedures on Medicare.

In Unblinded, you’ll discover how a trio of doctors stepped out of their comfort zones into a world
where groundbreaking biotechnology tussles with multimillion-dollar risk-taking—often amid
financial market turmoil. Despite the turbulence of their journey, David, Samir, Tony, and their
many contemporaries have never taken their eyes off the ultimate prize—improving sight.

Proceeds from the book go to the non-profit, Wise Eyes Foundation, with a mission to reduce
the unmet need in large population retinal diseases through research and patient support.