Kala Pharmaceuticals offers a rich and exciting work environment that provides its employees with the power to succeed, the flexibility to grow intellectually and the opportunity to contribute to the development of new medicines to treat human disease.

We are seeking talented and passionate individuals who thrive in a fast-paced, team-oriented and dynamic environment. Please send cover letter and resume to careers@kalarx.com.

Open positions

Head of Intellectual Property and Legal Affairs (Part-Time)

Kala Pharmaceuticals is developing innovative medicines that have the unprecedented ability to rapidly and effectively penetrate mucosal barriers resulting in superior therapeutic efficacy and transformative treatment outcomes for patients. We are seeking a talented, creative and highly motivated Attorney with a strong background in intellectual property, but interest and experience across a broader range of legal areas. You will serve as a member of our Management Team and partner cross-functionally with scientists and business development professionals, both internally and externally, to advance our intellectual property efforts and collaboration opportunities. We expect this role to require approximately three days per week on average, but are open to other mutually beneficial arrangements. This is an outstanding opportunity to join an emerging start-up and help build it into a successful pharmaceutical company.

Responsibilities include:

• Provide overall corporate legal support directly and/or by coordinating with appropriate outside counsel;
• Draft, review and negotiate a broad range of contracts with CROs, collaborators, etc., and provide advice regarding complex transactions to ensure alignment with  business strategy and to secure maximum rights for the company;
• Lead development, implementation of intellectual property strategies, including overall management of the patent prosecution docket, technology licensing and other key agreement work,  working with external counsel as needed;
• Partner closely with internal R&D and Business Development clients to offer advice and counsel regarding a variety of intellectual property issues, including the creation and protection of intellectual property arising from the company’s in-house research efforts and/or acquisitions and licensing activities;
• Drive licensing intellectual property and technology activity
• Conduct or direct freedom to operate  studies, analyses of third party patent positions and competitive patent intelligence,
• Manage trademark procurement activities; and,
• Manage and control outside counsel and associated costs.

Qualifications:

• Proven track record developing and implementing patent strategies with demonstrated success securing meaning patent protection for products and/or product candidates
• Juris Doctorate from a major accredited Law School required;
• Admission to the Massachusetts State Bar and/or license to practice in-house in Massachusetts required;
• Registration to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark office required; Advanced degree in chemistry, materials science or chemical engineering preferred;
• At least 10 years prior experience in patent drafting and prosecution, patent opinion drafting and licensing/agreement work in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry required;
• Previous in-house experience required;
• Understanding of the Hatch-Waxman laws and FDA regulatory procedures pertaining to ANDAs, and Patent & Trademark Office practice and procedures, required;
• Experience utilizing creative and proactive approaches to intellectual property strategies required;
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills required;
• Mature and professional demeanor with a high degree of self-motivation and organization required;
• Patent experience with pharmaceutical formulations technology, drug delivery technology, colloidal systems, and/or nanoparticles is strongly preferred; and,

Kala is advancing a diversified pipeline of transformative therapies for severe ophthalmic diseases, and our proprietary Mucosal Penetrating Particle technology offers the potential to treat a broad array of serious diseases that involve mucosal tissues such as in the lungs, gastrointestinal tract, and female reproductive system. We are located in Waltham, MA.

To apply, please forward your cover letter and cv specifying Job Code HIP-01 to careers@kalarx.com.

Scientist, Senior Scientist, Formulation Development

Kala Pharmaceuticals is developing innovative medicines that have the unprecedented ability to rapidly and effectively penetrate mucosal barriers resulting in superior therapeutic efficacy and transformative treatment outcomes for patients. We are seeking a talented, creative and highly motivated Scientist to join our formulation and product development efforts. You will partner cross-functionally with scientists and business development professionals, both internal and external, to advance drug candidates and collaboration opportunities. This is an outstanding opportunity to join an emerging start-up company and deepen your scientific expertise while becoming involved in broader drug development activities.

Responsibilities include:

• Develop and execute formulation and process optimization experiments for novel nanoparticle-based drug products;
• Collaborate with analytical scientists to gain understanding of the composition and stability of novel formulations and to better ensure the safety and efficacy of potential therapeutic products;
• Partner with the chemistry team to explore the feasibility of formulating therapeutic agents, including new chemical entities, using Kala’s proprietary Mucosal Penetrating Particle technology;
• Interface with contract research / manufacturing organizations;
• Contribute to intellectual property, regulatory filings, funding applications, and scientific publications;
• Team with scientists and business development professionals to provide data and analysis in support of external collaboration opportunities.

Qualifications:

• PhD degree in Materials Science, Chemical Engineering or a related field;
• 0-3 years (Scientist) or 3-5 years (Senior Scientist) of experience as a formulation scientist or process development engineer;
• Direct experience with colloidal systems and characterization of nanoparticles or microparticles;
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills;
• Mature and professional demeanor with a high degree of self-motivation and organization;
• Experience with statistical Design of Experiment, particle size reduction processes, aseptic processes, GMP manufacturing of sterile drug products, and/or process transfer to contract manufacturing facilities is a plus.

Kala is advancing a diversified pipeline of transformative therapies for severe ophthalmic diseases, and our proprietary Mucosal Penetrating Particle technology offers the potential to treat a broad array of serious diseases that involve mucosal tissues such as in the lungs, gastrointestinal tract, and female reproductive system. We are located in Waltham, MA.

To apply, please forward your cover letter and cv specifying Job Code SFD-01 to careers@kalarx.com.