BioSenic appoints Yves Sagot as Independent Director

REGULATED INFORMATION

Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium, January 27, 2023, 7am CET – BioSenic (Euronext Brussels and Paris: BIOS), the clinical stage company specializing in serious autoimmune / inflammatory diseases and cell repair, today announces the appointment of Yves Sagot as a Member of the Board and Independent Director.

Yves Sagot has been appointed to the BioSenic Board for his experience and achievements for Relief Therapeutics SA and a number of specific aspects that mirror recent BioSenic developments.

Yves co-founded Relief Therapeutics in 2013 to develop a clinical asset acquired from Merck Serono. In 2016, Relief Therapeutics went public on the Swiss stock exchange (SIX) after a reverse merger with THERAMetrics. Whilst maintaining his activities as Chief Scientific Officer at Relief Therapeutics, Yves created MBS Sagot Consulting in 2018 to provide to the life science market senior expertise covering research and early clinical development. Subsequently, after leaving Relief Therapeutics, he is a private investor in biotechnology via MBS Invest & Consult Sàrl. He is also one of the ambassadors of the Léon Bérard Cancer Center, an internationally recognized research center in Lyon, France. He has authored 25 papers that have been published in international peer-reviewed journals, holds three granted patents and received the Serono CEO Award in 2001 and the Merck Serono Reward and Recognition Award in 2008.

Yves Sagot replaces Terry Sadler as an Independent Director and Member of the Board at BioSenic.

“BioSenic has now completed the acquisition of the majority participation in Medsenic and is now focused on ongoing clinical development on both platforms. As a result, BioSenic is now building further expertise in its senior teams, with recent appointments of a Chief Medical Officer that is responsible for the development of both of BioSenic’s cell therapy and autoimmune disease platforms, and a Chief Scientific Officer to manage BioSenic’s scientific research and development,” said Prof. François Rieger, President and CEO of BioSenic. “We are additionally focusing on ensuring our board of directors has the optimal composition of expertise. Yves Sadler has highly relevant and complimentary professional experience, specifically as a co-founder of a European biotech that also went public following a merger. His ongoing advice and contributions will be vital as BioSenic continues to demonstrate value to investors through development of our pipeline of therapies developed through our cell therapy and autoimmune disease platforms. I would also like to thank Terry Sadler for his contribution as an Independent Director through the acquisition process.”

“The creation of BioSenic has resulted in an intriguing biotech company with multiple targets and platforms. These number of platforms spreads risk, and also will result in increased innovation as the differing expertise of scientific teams share strategies and ideas. As a result, this should be highly attractive for investors,” said Yves Sagot, Independent Director and Member of the Board at BioSenic. “This is a major reason why I have accepted to join the BioSenic board and offer my additional expertise as an Independent Director. The combination now of the experience of the board will provide a significant contribution to the senior team as they develop therapies for patients suffering from a range of high unmet medical needs.”

Yves received a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Management of Medtech, Biotech & Pharma Ventures from the Management of Technology EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland., holds a Ph.D in Neurobiology and a Masters in Pharmacology and Fundamental Toxicology from the Université Paul Sabatier (UPS), Toulouse, France.

About BioSenic

BioSenic is a biotech company focused on (i) the development of innovative products to address high unmet needs in orthopedics and (ii) exploiting the possibilities offered by the therapeutic use of arsenic salts (mainly arsenic trioxide (ATO)) for patients with autoimmune diseases. Key target indications for the platforms include Graft versus Host Disease (GvHD), Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) and high-risk tibial fractures.
Following the merger in October 2022, BioSenic combines the strategic positionings and strengths of Medsenic and Bone Therapeutics. The merger also enables Biosenic to add to its innovative cell therapy platform and strong IP for tissue repair protection with an entirely new arsenal of various anti-inflammatory and anti-autoimmune formulations using the immunomodulatory properties of ATO/OATO.
BioSenic is based in the Louvain-la-Neuve Science Park in Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium. Further information is available at http://www.biosenic.com.

About BioSenic technology platforms

BioSenic’s technology is based on:

1)   The allogeneic cell and gene therapy platform, developed by BioSenic with differentiated bone marrow sourced Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSCs) that can be stored at the point of use in hospitals. Its current investigational medicinal product, ALLOB, represents a unique, proprietary approach to organ repair and specifically to bone regeneration, by turning undifferentiated stromal cells from healthy donors into bone-forming cells on the site of injury after a single local injection. These cells are produced via a BioSenic's scalable manufacturing process. Following the CTA approval by regulatory authorities in Europe, BioSenic has initiated patient recruitment for the Phase IIb clinical trial with ALLOB in patients with difficult tibial fractures, using its optimized production process. ALLOB is currently being evaluated in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase IIb study in patients with high-risk tibial fractures, using its optimized production process.
2)   The Arsenic TriOxide (ATO) platform developed by Medsenic. The immunomodulatory properties of ATO have demonstrated a double basic effect on cells of the immune system. The first effect is the increase of the cell oxidative stress in activated B, T or other cells of the innate/adaptative immune system to the point they will enter a cell death program (apoptosis) and be eliminated. The second effect is potent immunomodulatory properties on several pro-inflammatory cytokines involved in inflammatory or autoimmune cell pathways. One direct application is its use in onco-immunology to treat GvHD (Graft-versus-Host Disease) in its chronic, established stage. GvHD is one of the most common and clinically significant complications affecting long-term survival of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT). GvHD is primarily mediated by the transplanted immune system that can lead to severe multiorgan damage. Medsenic had been successful in a phase II trial with its intravenous formulation, allowing arsenic trioxide to be granted an orphan drug designation status by FDA and EMA and is heading towards an international Phase III confirmatory study, with a new, IP protected, oral (OATO) formulation.
Moderate to Severe forms of Systemic Lupus erythematosus (SLE) is another selected target, using the same oral formulation. ATO has shown good safety and significant clinical efficacy on several affected organs (skin, mucosae and the gastro-intestinal tract) in a phase IIa study.
Systemic Sclerosis is, in addition, part of the clinical pipeline of BioSenic. Preclinical studies on pertinent animal models are positive. This gives good grounds to launch a phase II clinical protocol for this serious disease that badly affects skin, lungs or vascularization, and with no actual current effective treatment.

For further information, please contact:

BioSenic SA
François Rieger, PhD, Chief Executive Officer
Tel: +33 (0)671 73 31 59
investorrelations@biosenic.com

For Belgian Media and Investor Enquiries:
Bepublic
Bert Bouserie
Tel: +32 (0)488 40 44 77
bert.bouserie@bepublicgroup.be

For International Media Enquiries:
IB Communications
Neil Hunter / Michelle Boxall
Tel: +44 (0)20 8943 4685
neil.hunter@ibcomms.agency / michelle@ibcomms.agency

For French Media Enquiries:
NewCap Media
Annie-Florence Loyer
Tel: +33 (0)1 44 71 00 12
afloyer@newcap.fr

For French Investor Enquiries:
Seitosei Actifin
Ghislaine Gasparetto
Tel: +33 (0)1 56 88 11 22
ggasparetto@actifin.fr

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