3 March 2023 - - France-based clinical-stage biotechnology company Sensorion (FR0012596468 ALSEN), specialized in the field of hearing loss disorders, has appointed David Lawrence as chief financial officer, effective as of March 1st, 2023, the company said.

Mr Lawrence was previously chief financial officer of Valneva, a specialty vaccine company, where he served as a member of the Management Board; his responsibilities included Investor Relations and Communications in addition to overseeing the financial management of the company.

During his tenure at Valneva he was instrumental in several financings including a NASDAQ Initial Public offering and by the point of his retirement from Valneva the market capitalisation of the company had grown to over EUR 2bn.

He has also previously served as chief financial officer of Acambis and as VP of Finance, Business Development and Strategy at Chiron Vaccines. In 2011 he supported the establishment and development of Synpromics Ltd, a synthetic promoter company that was acquired by AskBio in 2019.

Mr Lawrence has over 30 years' experience of leadership roles in life sciences, ranging from large biopharma companies such as GSK to start-ups and earlier stage companies, including Synpromics Ltd. He brings with him extensive industry experience including strategy, business development and M&A, and currently sits on the boards of Enterobiotix Ltd. and is an advisor to ACM Biolabs Pty.

He has also advised several Venture Capital firms between 2006 and 2017.

Sensorion is a pioneering clinical-stage biotech company, which specializes in the development of novel therapies to restore, treat and prevent hearing loss disorders, a significant global unmet medical need.

Sensorion has built a unique R&D technology platform to expand its understanding of the pathophysiology and etiology of inner ear related diseases, enabling it to select the best targets and mechanisms of action for drug candidates. Its portfolio combines both inner ear gene therapy and small molecule programs.

Its clinical-stage portfolio includes one Phase 2 product: SENS-401 (Arazasetron) progressing in a planned Phase 2 Proof of Concept clinical study of SENS-401 in Cisplatin-Induced Ototoxicity and, with partner Cochlear Ltd., in a study of SENS-401 in patients scheduled for cochlear implantation. A Phase 2 study of SENS-401 was also completed in Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SSNHL) in January 2022.

Sensorion pursues its broad strategic collaboration with Institut Pasteur focused on the genetics of hearing.

It has two gene therapy programs aimed at correcting hereditary monogenic forms of deafness including OTOF-GT, targeting deafness caused by mutations of the gene encoding for otoferlin, and hearing loss related to mutations in GJB2 gene to potentially address important hearing loss segments in adults and children (GJB2-GT).

The company is also working on the identification of biomarkers to improve diagnosis of these underserved illnesses.