Dendrogenix is a Liège-based biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of New Chemical Entities (NCEs) called Dendrogenins through early clinical development. These first-in-class small molecules derived from epoxysterols and biogenic amines possess neuroprotective and neuroregenerative properties and promote neuronal survival. They address significant unmet medical needs in neurological disorders resulting from synaptic dysfunction and neuronal degeneration, such as hearing loss (especially presbycusis), stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI). We met Stéphane Silvente, CEO and co-founder of the company.
Stéphane Silvente, since 2018 Dendrogenix has been developing innovative molecules, Dendrogenins, to address significant unmet medical needs in hearing loss and neurology?
Dendrogenix currently employs around twenty people, including doctors in chemistry and biology as well as expert consultants in preclinical and clinical pharmaceutical regulatory development. Our company is active in the hearing-loss market, for which there are still no approved drugs and only sound-amplifying hearing aids are available. The WHO estimates that age-related hearing loss, affecting people aged 60 and over, is the most common cause of hearing loss worldwide and will affect more than 500 million people by 2025. Dendrogenix is also active in neurology.
In this second field, Dendrogenix successfully completed its STROMA R&D programme, launched in September 2022, covering ischaemic stroke and TBI. The programme received a €1.5 million grant from the Walloon Region’s Department of Research and Technological Development. At the 2024 SFN meeting in Chicago, Dr Quentin Marlier, Head of Biology, presented promising preclinical data with DX243 in mouse models of stroke and TBI. The results were well received by key opinion leaders, including Prof. Patrick Lyden of the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute (Los Angeles), who joined the company’s collaborators.
In the second half of 2025, Dendrogenix began a scientific collaboration with Prof. Lyden’s laboratory involving in-vivo experiments in Belgium and the United States, supported by additional Walloon Region funding. The STROMA programme led to a peer-reviewed publication demonstrating beneficial effects of DX243 in models of ischaemic stroke. Further support (€395,761) enabled a multicentre translational programme that generated regulatory-grade efficacy data, opening a clear path to Phase 2 development in stroke. Parallel TBI data, reviewed by a leading international expert, confirmed the compound’s broader potential.
At the end of 2025, Dendrogenix launched ADgenin, a €2.6 million Walloon-funded R&D programme focused on molecular design, synthesis optimisation, lead selection through in-vitro studies, and subsequent in-vivo and preclinical development to select a new lead.
2026 was an important and decisive year for Dendrogenix. You successfully completed the Phase 1b clinical trial and initiated the Phase 2a clinical trial on Dendrogenins for age-related hearing loss.
Indeed, in the field of deafness we finalised our first-in-human single-centre clinical study at Sart-Tilman University Hospital of Liège. Phase 1a (single ascending dose) showed no systemic adverse effects. Phase 1b (multiple ascending dose in up to 24 healthy volunteers) confirmed no systemic intolerance, acceptable local tolerability and a favourable pharmacokinetic profile—a major milestone supporting continuation into Phase 2a.
Building on these results, Dendrogenix initiated Phase 2a in the first quarter of 2026: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study evaluating safety, tolerability and early efficacy signals in 24 patients with mild-to-moderate presbycusis, conducted with the ENT department of Sart-Tilman. Phase 2a will also provide preliminary efficacy data needed to design the subsequent Phase 2b dose-finding trial.
Can you count on the financial support of key partners for this development project?
This Phase 1/2a clinical trial is receiving €2.5 million from the Walloon Region’s Department of Research and Technological Development (SPW Recherche Wallonne – CLINEAR project). Two rounds of fundraising have been completed with investors including NOSHAQ, Wallonie Entreprendre and MED-EL, which specialises in electronic hearing aids.
Can your company also count on solid scientific advice?
Dendrogenix’s expertise focuses on the chemistry and biology of Dendrogenins. Dendrogenix has also developed international research partnerships with leading centres such as GIGA-Neurosciences at the University of Liège and the University of Tübingen in Germany.
In addition to its clinical platform, the company has developed expertise in the production of Dendrogenins through medicinal chemistry and biology. One of Dendrogenix’s distinctive strengths is the multidisciplinary nature of its organisation. The team brings together highly qualified scientists in chemistry, biology and medicine covering the full drug-development continuum, from design and synthesis to lead optimisation, mechanism-of-action studies, and preclinical and clinical development. Scientists are guided by internationally recognised experts in hearing disorders and neuroscience who serve on the scientific advisory board. The company continues to expand its scientific ecosystem and partnerships, aiming to select new free-to-operate Dendrogenin candidates for neurological indications.
Does Dendrogenix’s strength also lie in this future potential?
Absolutely. The company focuses primarily on hearing loss while remaining open to other applications such as brain damage and neurodegenerative diseases related to mitochondrial dysfunction. Chemists and biologists continuously develop and protect intellectual property from new generations of Dendrogenins and their therapeutic applications. Intellectual property is a critical strategic asset that safeguards advances and creates opportunities for partnerships, investment and clinical development. DX243 continues to reveal promising new opportunities.
Stéphane Silvente, are investors just as important for the development of your company?
As our main objective is to commercialise the product, we want to take it as far as possible in clinical development, at least to the end of Phase 2b. Rather than a single transaction involving all intellectual property, our strategy focuses on developing different indications through various partnerships. This plan is supported by a well-structured syndicate of investors. I am very satisfied and proud of our board of directors, which includes NOSHAQ as well as Dr Ingeborg Hochmair, co-founder and CEO of MED-EL GmbH, famous for creating the world’s first microelectronic multichannel cochlear implant.
What are Dendrogenix’s long-term objectives?
Dendrogenix can rely on its advanced clinical development programmes and academic partnerships to confidently envisage its medium-term prospects. The company also wishes to extend its expertise in Dendrogenins and their derivatives. To do this, we count on our experienced team to optimise performance through the extension of our foundational patent portfolio and a new generation of Dendrogenins protected by the conversion of Belgian patents into international patents.
Dendrogenix
– Biotechnology company dedicated to the development of Dendrogenins up to the early clinical stage
– CEO: Mr Stéphane Silvente
– Areas of research: deafness and neurology
– 10 employees based in Liège, Belgium
– Clinical trial underway: DX243 for the treatment of presbycusis – Phase 2a
– Preclinical trial underway: STROMA – DX243 for treatment of stroke/TBI
Dendrogenix
11, avenue de l’Hôpital
B-4000 Liège
Tel.: +32 (0)437 844 94
Email: contact@dendrogenix.com
