And, in the end, they didn't. But, oh, what might have been! This was a pitch concept for the second gene therapy launched in the US—a miraculous piece of biological engineering from Spark Therapeutics that, in just one application per eye, can bring the light back into a blind child's world, expanding that world into the one the rest of us take for granted. I called this conceptual approach, THE INTIMACY OF INDEPENDENCE.

 

It is every person's birthright to walk the earth with autonomy, unassisted and independent, to enjoy the freedoms those with sight take for granted. I felt this was a way to communicate this truth while also making reference to the product (which was eventually called Luxturna) being a milestone scientific achievement of historic proportions. So I leveraged the potency and timeless immediacy of the Apollo space program to link vision restoration to the everyday discovery of a brave and bright new world. I'm especially proud of the pitch video I wrote and produced. And I'm really sad they didn't buy it.