Jean-Yves Deslandes - Chief Medical Officer
Nicolas Delaunay - Head of CMC Regulatory Affairs
Jérôme Vailland - Chief Financial Officer
Paris, France, June 29, 2017 - Horama (www.horama.fr), a French biotech company based in Paris and specialized in gene therapy for the treatment of rare inherited retinal diseases, today announces the appointment of three new experts: Jean-Yves Deslandes, Nicolas Delaunay and Jérôme Vailland. With these three notable additions, the company, founded in 2014 with the ambition to treat inherited retinopathies, a class of rare eye diseases, completes its management team.
“We are delighted to announce today the appointment of these three talented individuals at key positions within Horama’s team. Their expertise and longevity in their respective fields of competence, as well as their human qualities, make us confident that they will contribute significantly to the development of Horama’s activity, toward its goal of treating rare inherited retinal diseases,” said Christine Placet, CEO of Horama.
Jean-Yves Deslandes, Chief Medical Officer
Jean-Yves Deslandes, who joined Horama in April 2017, has over 25 years of international experience in the pharmaceutical industry in Europe and the United States, including significant experience in ophthalmology and ocular gene therapy. His past positions include Clinical Research Manager at Alcon/Novartis, Director of Clinical Research at Sanofi-Fovea and Director of the Department of Clinical Research at Allergan Europe. He has a M.D. degree from the University of Paris VII.
Nicolas Delaunay, Head of CMC Regulatory Affairs
Hired by Horama in November 2016, Nicolas Delaunay is an expert in the management of pharmaceutical development projects for gene-therapy products. During his 13-year tenure at Généthon, Nicolas contributed to the implementation of Généthon’s Pharmaceutical Quality System, before assuming the responsibility of Quality Manager as Delegate Chief Pharmacy Officer. He was in charge of certifying batches of experimental gene-therapy products (ATMP). The Agence Nationale de Sécurité du Médicament et des Produits de Santé (ANSM) then hired him as Clinical Evaluator in ophthalmology. Nicolas Delaunay has a Ph.D. in Pharmacy from the University of Paris XI and two Master’s Degree : one in Quality Control and Assurance for gene and cell therapy products and one in Public Health, with a major in Health Economics.
Jérôme Vailland, Chief Financial Officer
Hired as Horama’s CFO in last November, Jérôme Vailland has 15 years of experience in audit, management and transactions. Following his career start as a Financial Controller at Bouygues Telecom, he was hired as a Senior Manager by Ernst & Young, where he worked during 11 years in the fields of financial audit, transaction advisory services and IPO services, mainly for the life sciences industry, in addition to his managerial duties (team management, business development, recruitment, etc.). Jérôme Vailland is a graduate of Audencia-Nantes, where he majored in audit-financial control.
About Horama
Horama is a clinical-stage biotech company that develops gene-therapy treatments, based on recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vectors, targeting rare inherited retinal diseases. The company’s portfolio especially includes two products scheduled to enter into clinical trials in the coming months. Horama was founded in 2014 in Paris with the support of a group of scientists who had carried out one of the very first gene-therapy trials in ophthalmology, in 2011. These world-renowned cofounders (Philippe Moullier, Christian Hamel and Vasiliki Kalatzis of INSERM, and Michel Weber and Guylène Le Meur, of the University Hospital of Nantes) all have complementary skills.
For more information: www.horama.fr
