Richard H. Smith

Akouos, Inc. is a precision genetic medicine company, which engages in the development of precision genetic medicines to restore and preserve hearing in genetically-defined patient populations. The firm's lead product candidate, AK-OTOF, is a gene therapy for the treatment of hearing loss due to mutations in the OTOF gene. It develops targeted adeno-associated viral vector based gene therapies for sensorineural hearing loss, which results from dysfunction or damage to sensory cells and nerve fibers of the inner ear. The company was founded by Emmanuel J. Simons, William F. Sewell, Richard H. Smith, Luk H. Vandenberghe, and Michael J. McKenna on March 7, 2016 and is headquartered in Boston, MA.