Sensorion appoints Fred Chereau CEO as Audiogene trial data show six-month durability

Sensorion announced the appointment of Fred Chereau as Chief Executive Officer, effective June 1, 2026. Amit Munshi will continue as Chairman of the Board of Directors, having served as Interim Chief Executive Officer since February 2026. The appointment comes as the company reported a six-month update from the Audiogene Phase I/II clinical trial assessing SENS-501, its gene therapy candidate for otoferlin-mediated congenital deafness.

Sensorion said the study’s recent data indicate that early improvements in pure-tone audiometry, seen at month three in two of three patients receiving a higher SENS-501 dose in cohort 2, persisted at the six-month follow-up evaluation. This aligns with earlier observations from cohort 1, where initial auditory pathway activation signs appeared at a lower dose, supporting evidence of a dose-response relationship in the two cohorts.

According to the company, all six participants in the dose-escalation phase tolerated the surgical and intra-cochlear administration of the gene therapy well, with no serious adverse events or side effects reported. The trial is designed to assess the efficacy, safety and tolerability of intra-cochlear SENS-501 injection for otoferlin gene-mediated hearing loss in infants and toddlers aged six to 31 months at treatment time. It includes two dosing cohorts followed by an expansion group receiving the selected dose.

The primary endpoint in the dose escalation phase is safety, while auditory brainstem response will serve as the main efficacy endpoint during expansion. The delivery system developed by Sensorion is also being evaluated for clinical safety and ease of use. The company is considering adding a third dose level to the trial and will consult regulatory authorities accordingly. In February 2025, the Audiogene Phase I/II trial received a favourable recommendation from the Data Monitoring Committee to continue.

Before joining Sensorion, Chereau served as Senior Vice President, Strategy and Business Development at Alexion - AstraZeneca Rare Disease, following his tenure as President and CEO of LogicBio Therapeutics, which was acquired by Alexion in 2022. Prior to LogicBio, he served as President and COO of aTyr Pharma. Earlier, he led Pervasis Therapeutics as President and CEO, guiding the company to its acquisition by Shire Pharmaceuticals.

Sensorion said Chereau brings more than 30 years of leadership and operational experience across the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical device industries, combining deep expertise in rare disease drug development and regenerative medicine with a strong track record of building scalable businesses and accelerating growth. The company also said Géraldine Honnet, Chief Medical Officer since February 2020, is stepping down from her role to join a privately held biotechnology company. During her tenure, Sensorion advanced from a preclinical-stage company to an active clinical-stage gene therapy organization, initiating the Audiogene Phase 1/2 trial and advancing SENS-601 toward first-in-human development.