Saniona appoints Robert Hoffman to Board of Directors as Chair of the Audit Committee

PRESS RELEASE

16 September 2021

Saniona (OMX: SANION), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on rare diseases, today announced the appointment of Robert E. Hoffman to its board of directors, as resolved at the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting held on September 16, 2021. Hoffman is an experienced financial executive and board member with nearly 30 years of experience and achievements in accounting, finance, fund raising, strategic planning, corporate governance, investor relations, and leadership.

“Robert’s depth of experience leading and advising U.S.-listed companies on corporate finance, investor relations and related activities will be valuable as we continue to develop our board and evaluate a future U.S. listing,” said J. Donald deBethizy, Chairman of the Saniona Board of Directors. 

“I see in Saniona a company with a considerable amount of untapped potential. There is incredible depth in the pipeline and the talent, and I look forward to supporting and advising the team on how to ensure Saniona’s potential is appreciated and valued,” said Hoffman.

Hoffman currently sits on three publicly-traded company boards with market capitalizations ranging from $30 million to $300 million (ASLAN Pharmaceuticals – Nasdaq: ASLN, Kintara Therapeutics – Nasdaq: KTRA, and Antibe Therapeutics – TSX: ATE), serving as chairman on one of the boards and as financial expert on the other boards. Hoffman also serves as a board member of the Association of Bioscience Financial Officers and FibroBiologics, Inc., a private biotechnology company. In his most recent operating role, Hoffman was Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of San Diego-based Heron Pharmaceuticals, a Nasdaq-listed, commercial-stage drug developer with a pipeline of acute pain therapeutics. During his tenure at Heron, the company raised more than $650 million and launched its second commercial drug product. Hoffman’s career in the biotechnology sector began in 1997 at Arena Pharmaceuticals, where he was a member of the founding management team and rose to become CFO, holding that position for ten years. While at Arena, he was involved in its Initial Public Offering (IPO) and financings, raising more than $1.5 billion. Hoffman was the financial lead in two Arena acquisitions, including a Swiss manufacturing facility, and he became managing director of the facility upon the closing of the transaction. Hoffman also was an advisor to the Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) for 10 years (2010 to 2020), advising the United States accounting rulemaking organizations on emerging issues and new financial guidance. As a founder of Day For Change, a not-for-profit that serves underprivileged and abused children in San Diego, Hoffman has served on its board of directors for 20 years. Hoffman received his BBA in accounting from St. Bonaventure University and is a licensed CPA (Inactive) in the State of California.

Hoffman is considered independent in relation to the company, its senior management and major shareholders. Hoffman does not own shares in Saniona.

For more information, please contact

Trista Morrison, Chief Communications Officer, Saniona. Office: + 1 (781) 810-9227. Email:

The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 17.50 CEST on 16 September 2021.

About Saniona

Saniona is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing innovative therapies for patients suffering from rare diseases for which there are a lack of available treatment options. The company’s lead product candidate, Tesomet, is in mid-stage clinical trials for hypothalamic obesity and Prader-Willi syndrome, serious rare disorders characterized by severe weight gain, disturbances of metabolic functions and uncontrollable hunger. Saniona has developed a proprietary ion channel drug discovery engine anchored by IONBASE™, a database of more than 130,000 ion channel modulators, of which more than 20,000 are Saniona’s proprietary compounds. Through its ion channel expertise, Saniona is advancing two wholly-owned ion channel modulators, SAN711 and SAN903. SAN711 is in a Phase 1 clinical trial and may be applicable in the treatment of rare neuropathic disorders, and SAN903 is in preclinical development for rare inflammatory, fibrotic and hematological disorders. Led by an experienced scientific and operational team, Saniona has an established research organization in the Copenhagen area, Denmark, and a corporate office in the Boston, Massachusetts area, U.S. The company’s shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm Small Cap (OMX: SANION). Read more at .

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