NEW YORK – Sensorion on Friday said it hopes to raise €50.5 million ($54.48 million) by offering 88,594,737 of its new ordinary shares at €.57 per new share.
Redmile Group, Invus, Sofinnova Partners, existing shareholders, US healthcare specialist funds including Aquilo Capital, and two unnamed large investment firms are participating in the reserved offering slated to take place around Feb. 13.
Montpellier, France-based Sensorion said the financing and the €36.5 million in cash it had as of Dec. 31 will extend its cash runway through the second quarter of 2025 and allow it to continue developing precision medicines for hearing disorders.
The company's lead asset, SENS-501 (OTOF-GT), is a gene therapy designed to restore hearing in patients with deafness caused by mutations in the OTOF gene. Sensorion is developing SENS-501 with the nonprofit French biomedical research foundation Institut Pasteur, and the partners recently extended their collaboration inked in 2019 through 2028.
"This strengthened shareholder base reinforces Sensorion's ambition to advance its pipeline of innovative therapies intended to improve the quality of life of patients suffering from hearing disorders," Sensorion CEO Nawal Ouzren said in a statement. "The capital increase will enable the company to pursue its relentless efforts in moving forward its gene therapy programs developed in the framework of the renewed collaboration with the Institut Pasteur."
SENS-501 is undergoing testing in a Phase I/II trial, dubbed Audiogene, underway in European countries, including France. The company is focused on recruiting the first two cohorts into this trial by the first half of 2025. Sensorion will also use the funds from this financing to complete preclinical research on a second gene therapy, GJB2-GT, with the goal of seeking permission from regulators to start clinical trials by the first half of 2025.