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Radical Honesty Is Part Of The Secret To Apellis's Success

 
• By David Wild

On the heels of Apellis's wildly successful launch for the geographic atrophy drug Syfovre, the company's co-founder and CEO spoke with In Vivo about what it takes to go from a start-up to a commercial-stage company and about the importance of honesty in leadership.

Apellis
Syfovre Earned Apellis Pharmaceuticals $18.4m Within Roughly A Month Of Launch • Source: Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.'s CEO Cedric Francois, one of In Vivo’s 2023 Rising Leaders, has come by his penchant for innovation honestly. As a pediatric and transplant surgeon, Francois was on the University of Louisville, Kentucky, research team that in 1999 performed the first successful vascularized composite allograft hand transplant. During his time at Louisville, a mentor shared a sentiment on visionary leadership that has supported Francois through his entrepreneurial endeavors.

Self-assuredness helped Francois in co-founding Potentia Pharmaceuticals, the first company to test complement-inhibiting therapies in age-related macular degeneration, and then...

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