Jack O’Meara announced on LinkedIn Monday that he is stepping down from the CEO post at Ochre Bio, the liver disease startup he co-founded. In an interview with Endpoints News, he teased plans for a neurodegenerative disease startup, though he said work is still in its early phases.
Ochre Bio has inked partnerships with both GSK and Boehringer Ingelheim in the past year. “It’s a big job. It takes its toll. And I felt after the two deals, we put the company in a really strong position for its next phase,” O’Meara said about his decision to leave Ochre now.
“My skill set lends itself quite well to building early-stage companies and getting platforms off the ground,” he added.
Eliot ForsterEliot Forster will become executive chairman of Ochre Bio, steering the company as it finds a new CEO “in due course.”
O’Meara said that he is working on a startup focused on Alzheimer’s, a disease that is personal to his family. His grandmother, who he was particularly close to, was diagnosed with the disease when he was growing up. “She suffered a lot from Alzheimer’s. It’s a tragic, terrible condition that you lose them so far before they actually go,” he said. “That was always something that left its mark on me.”
He said that he had dabbled in starting an Alzheimer’s company before Ochre. Now, he says that investors have warmed up to the idea more. “In light of the recent approvals, [I’m] starting to see a little bit of hope for a company there. And those two approvals leave a lot of room to be desired for impactful new medicines,” he said.
The FDA approved Eli Lilly’s Alzheimer’s treatment Kisunla earlier this year, and Biogen and Eisai’s Leqembi in 2023.
O’Meara noted that he grew up in Athlone, Ireland — where Elan Corporation was founded. Elan was a major drug company that had tried and failed to develop an Alzheimer’s drug with Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer (via its acquisition of Wyeth).
O’Meara said he’s just “beginning to piece together the puzzle” for this new startup.