Unblinded: The Start-Up That Launched a Revolution in Saving Sight

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

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. 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. What may seem like a simple shift of a few millimeters forever altered the approach to visual healthcare.

In Unblinded, you'll discover how the well-intentioned 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 (and with the aid of copious quantities of caffeine), David, Samir, Tony, and their many companions have never taken their eyes off the ultimate prize--improving sight.