I think it’s important to find something that you enjoy doing and specifically one that makes an impact on people. If you are making a positive impact and enjoying what you’re doing, everything else takes care of itself.
As a part of our series about “Social Impact Investors”, I had the pleasure of interviewing George Magrath.
George Magrath is a distinguished, board-certified, ophthalmologist and fellowship-trained ocular oncologist. Magrath obtained a masters of applied economics from Johns Hopkins and an MBA from The Citadel. In April 2023, Magrath became Interim Chief Executive Officer and President at Occuphire Pharmaceuticals, a NASDAQ-traded company at the forefront of ophthalmic pharmaceuticals. He founded OphthaFund in 2023 with board-certified ophthalmologist Tom Mather and Juris Doctor Andrea Marshall.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I just liked the fact that you could make an impact on people really quickly. In medical school you rotate around to different specialties. My chosen field, ophthalmology, is a sector of medicine where you can directly see the positive impact on people. If you’re successful with what you do, people get excited about having the ability to see or see more clearly, which is exciting. Other specialties, while equally as important, are not always quite as dramatic and instantaneous as ophthalmology.
Can you share a story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson or take-away did you learn from that?
I always wanted to attend an academic school, possibly even an Ivy League college for medical school. I applied to a bunch of different schools, and many different programs, but, I didn’t get into any of them. I probably got several hundred rejection letters over the years for undergrad, med school, and business school, and that’s not even counting people who just didn’t even respond. It took me 15 years before I was able to eventually attend Johns Hopkins. What I learned was that at the end of the day, it didn’t matter — it just wasn’t where I was supposed to be. It was all about the effort and level of instruction I received, so it was kind of silly at the time that I even worried about it. My life ended up better because I landed in places and around people who were able to help me become better. My life would have been significantly different, and I’m pretty happy about how it turned out.
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?
There wasn’t a specific tipping point, it was more of a progression. My journey to success was more of a journey, just accepting and attacking one challenge at a time and then, on to the next. I went from med school, to medical practice, to drug development, to running a company. I’ve always been chasing what I want to do. But, drug development is my north star and that’s where I think I can help the most people.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person or mentor to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Tom Mather, the co-founder of OphthaFund, fits that bill and I am incredibly grateful for him. He has worked in drug development for decades and is truly adept at it. He trained me in ophthalmology and helped bring OphthaFund together. He taught me how to succeed in this business and he didn’t have to teach me any of it — he went above and beyond to help me. He’s been an impactful person in my life.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that many have attempted, but eventually gave up on. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path but are afraid of the prospect of failure?
I think it’s important to find something that you enjoy doing and specifically one that makes an impact on people. If you are making a positive impact and enjoying what you’re doing, everything else takes care of itself.
You are a VC who is focused on investments that are making a positive social impact. Can you share with us a bit about the projects and companies you have focused on, and look to focus on in the future?
I’m particularly proud of a drug that I helped develop called Miebo. It was particularly challenging from a logistical standpoint, but that made it even more special. We got it over the finish line and it did exceptionally well — and it happens to be an exceptional drug that is helping a lot of people.
What you are doing is not very common. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were going to focus on social impact investing? Can you share the story with us?
Tom Mather was the main reason I joined OphthaFund. Since Tom had trained me in medical school and I worked with him at my last job, we discovered we were interested in the same thing and it sort of progressed from there. I had exited my former company, and he found out I was available, called me up and asked me to start OphthaFund with him. We knew there was a need in the market for advancements in eye care and we knew it was an area where we had expertise and could excel on behalf of the ophthalmology industry. However, I spend all of my time now on my current job at Ocuphire. We have a special molecule with an amazing team that I’m really enjoying.
Can you share a story with us about your most successful Angel or VC investment? Or an investment that you are most proud of? What was its lesson?
There are a number of investments that I am proud of, but the one that was most memorable was the creation of a medicine that injects into the eye for patients with retinal detachments. It’s meaningful because there were no other options for these patients and the data looks really promising. It makes a big impact because it helps a normally underserved group of patients.
Super. Here is the main question of this interview. What are your “5 things I need to see before making a VC investment” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
It’s a lot of disparate pieces all coming together. You have to see the right science, with the right time for the market. It’s a gradual process that takes a lot of time. If you don’t have those things, you will not be able to have a successful investment.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
There’s a real need in the market for the healthcare system to align with the most impactful drugs being developed. Right now, the markets are aligned for profit, which is natural, but sometimes profit is disconnected from what is the most impactful product for people in need. I hope there is a way toward value-based medicine in the drug development world. That would be a huge win, because that’s what society wants, needs and deserves. The medicines that have the most impact in most people’s day-to-day lives are the ones that should be incentivized.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
Do your best to make yourself useful. If you see a problem or something that needs to be fixed, go for it and try to fix it. Every time you succeed, it will help provide you with job security, provide you a good quality of life, and at the end of the day, you’ll be doing something meaningful. That’s what I’ve always done, and the rest of your life just takes care of itself.
How can our readers follow you online?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-magrath/
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
Social Impact Investors: How George Magrath of OphthaFund Is Helping To Empower was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.