SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — Sound Pharmaceuticals, a Seattle-based biotech firm, announced this week that it has hired two senior executives. Paul Hoskins, appointed to the position of Senior Director of Clinical Operations and G. Michael Wall, appointed to the position of Senior Director of Pharmaceutical Development. The new executives join the company with substantial backgrounds in the pharmaceutical industry. Sound Pharmaceuticals hopes that the new additions will help them accelerate a drug development program to treat Ménière’s disease.
Ménière’s disease affects an estimated 600,000 people in the US, and approximately 5 million worldwide. The debilitating condition — with symptoms of vertigo, hearing loss and tinnitus — is typically managed, with varying degrees of success, through dietary changes, diuretics and steroids.
Currently, there are no FDA-approved drugs to treat Ménière’s disease.
Accelerating Ménière’s Drug Development
Paul Hoskins joins Sound Pharmaceuticals with more than two decades in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, most recently as an Executive Director of Research at Merck. He brings a significant level of experience in clinical trials, and has provided operational expertise to in-man trials conducted in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the US.
G. Michael Wall joins the company with over 25 year in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. Mr. Wall was a Senior Director of Alcon, now Novartis, for two decades. In his previous role with Alcon, he led the development and approval of Ciprodex, an antibiotic/steroid otic drop for ear infections, and Patanase, an antihistamine nasal spray for allergic rhinitis.
“We are pleased to have two experienced biotech executives join our team and advance our clinical trials in this important area of neurotology” —Jonathan Kil, MD, Co-Founder and CEO, Sound Pharmaceuticals
Source: Sound Pharmaceuticals, PSBJ
