Ocugen Inc. Announces Michael Shine as Senior Vice President, Commercial

MALVERN, Pa., June 10, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (NASDAQ: OCGN), a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing gene therapies to cure blindness diseases and developing a vaccine to save lives from COVID-19, today announced that Michael Shine will be joining Ocugen as Senior Vice President, Commercial.

Michael Shine is a pharmaceutical and biotechnology executive with nearly 35 years of industry experience. Over the course of his career, Mr. Shine has held leadership positions within large pharmaceutical companies, including Novapharm Therapeutics, Colgate Oral Pharmaceutical, and Pfizer Vaccines (formerly Wyeth). He also served as Chief Marketing Officer with Thomas Reuters and spent more than eight years in the start-up pharmaceutical space.

“We are thrilled to welcome Mike to the Ocugen team as we take steps towards readiness for potential commercialization of COVAXIN in the US and Canada. As an established marketing and sales biopharma leader, Mike’s experience and commercial expertise will be instrumental to our market launches for Ocugen’s vaccine and ophthalmologic product pipelines, in each case if approved,” said , Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-founder of Ocugen.

Mr. Shine led the successful commercial launch of the global $6 billion Prevnar vaccine franchise while with Pfizer Vaccines (formerly Wyeth). Mr. Shine was responsible for the development of innovative strategies for Prevenar’s inclusion in national immunization programs in key markets, driving sales in excess of $2 billion. Mr. Shine holds a Master of Business Administration from Villanova University, and a Bachelor of Science in business administration from the University of Scranton.  

About Ocugen, Inc.

Ocugen, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing gene therapies to cure blindness diseases and developing a vaccine to save lives from COVID-19. Our breakthrough modifier gene therapy platform has the potential to treat multiple retinal diseases with one drug – “one to many” and our novel biologic product candidate aims to offer better therapy to patients with underserved diseases such as wet age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, and diabetic retinopathy. We are co-developing Bharat Biotech’s COVAXIN™ vaccine candidate for COVID-19 in the US market. For more information, please visit 

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. We may, in some cases, use terms such as “predicts,” “believes,” “potential,” “proposed,” “continue,” “estimates,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “plans,” “intends,” “may,” “could,” “might,” “will,” “should” or other words that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include information about qualitative assessments of available data, potential benefits, expectations for clinical trials, and anticipated timing of clinical trial readouts and regulatory submissions. This information involves risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including the ability to meet anticipated clinical endpoints, commencement and/or completion dates for clinical trials, regulatory submission dates, regulatory approval dates and/or launch dates, as well as risks associated with preliminary and interim data (including the interim data from Bharat Biotech’s Phase 3 trial in India), including the possibility of unfavorable new clinical trial data and further analyses of existing clinical trial data; the risk that the results of in-vitro studies will not be duplicated in human clinical trials; the risk that clinical trial data are subject to differing interpretations and assessments, including during the peer review/publication process, in the scientific community generally, and by regulatory authorities; whether and when data from Bharat Biotech’s clinical trials will be published in scientific journal publications and, if so, when and with what modifications; whether we will be able to provide the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with sufficient additional information regarding the design of and results from preclinical and clinical studies of COVAXIN, which have been conducted by Bharat Biotech in India in order for those trials to support a biologics license application (BLA), the size, scope, timing and outcome of any additional trials or studies that we may be required to conduct to support a BLA; any additional chemistry, manufacturing and controls information that we may be required to submit; the timing of our BLA filing; whether and when an application for authorization under interim order for emergency use will be filed in Canada; whether and when any such applications may be approved by Health Canada; whether developments with respect to COVID-19 pandemic will affect the regulatory pathway available for vaccines in the United States, Canada or other jurisdictions; market demand for COVAXIN in the United States or Canada; decisions by the FDA or Health Canada impacting labeling, manufacturing processes, safety and/or other matters that could affect the availability or commercial potential of COVAXIN in the United States or Canada, including development of products or therapies by other companies. These and other risks and uncertainties are more fully described in our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the risk factors described in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in the quarterly and annual reports that we file with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements that we make in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this press release whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date of this press release.

Ocugen Contact:



Sanjay Subramanian

Chief Financial Officer and Head of Corporate Development

Media Contact:



Sharon Correia

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at