Emmett Cunningham is a Senior Advisor at HealthQuest Capital and most recently served as Senior Managing Director in the Blackstone Life Sciences group, having joined Blackstone as part of its acquisition of Clarus in December of 2018. Dr. Cunningham joined Clarus in 2006 as a Principal. Dr. Cunningham was member of the full-time investment team since inception and has led investments in the medical technology, and biotechnology space that have supported FDA approval for 10 products.
Emmett currently serves on the Boards of Galera Therapeutics (GTRX) having supported $170M in total investment to date, Eyconis, Inc, which he co-founded and is Executive Chairman with a $150M Series A in 2024, OncoSwitch, which he co-founded, Oryon Cell Therapies, where he is Executive Chairman, and Nacuity Pharmaceuticals. He previously held positions on the boards of SARcode Biosciences (acquired by Shire), Neomend (acquired by Bard), Restoration Robotics (acquired by Venus Concept), Annexon Biosciences (ANNX), GrayBug Vision (GRAY), Lumos Pharma (LUMO), and SFJ Pharmaceutical Group.
Additionally, he has played instrumental roles as a co-founder and personal seed investor in several companies, including Xeris Biopharma Holdings (XERS), Aiolos Bio (acquired by GSK), PlacidO (acquired by WALDO), and Pr3vent Medical.
Prior to joining Clarus, Dr. Cunningham was the Senior Vice President, Medical Strategy at Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where he led the team that developed Macugen, a first-in-class product for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration.
Dr. Cunningham received an MD and MPH in epidemiology and statistics from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD in neuroscience from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) for work done at The Salk Institute.