HAYA Therapeutics raises CHF 18 million Seed financing to advance anti-fibrotic therapies targeting long non-coding RNAs
20.05.2021
HAYA Therapeutics, a company developing precision medicines that target tissue and cell-specific long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), closed its CHF 18 million Seed round. The financing was led by Broadview Ventures, with participation from Apollo Health Ventures, BERNINA BioInvest, 4See Ventures, Schroder Adveq, and Viva BioInnovator. HAYA Therapeutics was a Venture Kick winner and a Venture Leader Life Sciences in 2018 and one of the TOP 100 Swiss Startups in 2020. We interviewed Samir Ounzain, PhD, co-founder and CEO of HAYA Therapeutics, about the use of these funds and his entrepreneurial path.
 HAYA co-founder and CEO Dr. Samir Ounzain
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Founded and led by a team of experts in lncRNA biology and fibrotic disease, HAYA will use the funds from the financing to advance the discovery and development of innovative organ and cell-selective therapeutics that target lncRNAs to treat and potentially reverse fibrosis and other serious medical conditions related to aging. The company’s proprietary DiscoverHAYA™ drug discovery engine enables HAYA to generate a pipeline of lncRNA targeting anti-fibrotics for many tissues, including lung, kidney, liver, and tumor microenvironment. HAYA’s lead therapeutic candidate is an antisense oligonucleotide targeting the lncRNA Wisper, a cardiac tissue-enriched driver of fibrosis in the heart.
“HAYA was founded to address the major burden of fibrotic diseases and has made tremendous progress over the last several years deciphering the roles of lncRNAs, a new class of regulatory molecules derived from the ‘dark matter’ of the human genome,” said Samir Ounzain, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of HAYA Therapeutics. “With the support of our world-class investor syndicate and this Seed financing round, we are excited to accelerate our development efforts and look forward to bringing this new solution to patients suffering from fibrosis and other chronic age-related diseases.”
Preclinical research conducted by Dr. Ounzain and colleagues at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) demonstrated the ability of HAYA’s lead program to halt and potentially reverse fibrosis in the heart. HAYA is preparing to initiate clinical trials with its Wisper targeting candidate in non-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, an orphan indication with limited treatment options. The company secured an exclusive license from CHUV for the Wisper asset.
HAYA also announced that Robert Williamson will join the company as executive chair to the board of directors. Additionally, Jens Eckstein, PhD, managing partner at Apollo Health Ventures, and Benjamin Kreitman of Broadview Ventures will join HAYA’s board. Dr. Ounzain and Daniel Blessing, PhD, co-founder and CTO of HAYA Therapeutics, are also board members.
Samir, you and your team just raised CHF 18 million. How will the funds help HAYA achieve its vision?
HAYA’s vision is to develop precision tissue and cell-selective therapeutics that are safe, effective, and accessible for patients suffering from fibrotic diseases and other serious health conditions associated with aging. Our seed financing will allow us to accelerate our lead therapeutic candidate toward first-in-human clinical trials in addition to further developing and exploiting the power of our target identification engine, DiscoverHAYA™. The speed and potential of our engine to generate a pipeline of lncRNA targeting anti-fibrotics for many tissues, including the lung, has been a particularly exciting highlight during the previous year. We are delighted that our investor syndicate appreciates this potential. Our Seed financing allows us to now exploit and accelerate our efforts in multiple tissues and indications.
You won Venture Kick in 2018. How did it help you lay the foundation for your growth and fundraising?
Winning Venture Kick helped HAYA in many ways. First of all, the Kickers Camps and the associated support and feedback from the Venture Kick team helped us iterate and develop our value proposition, taking it to a level that helped us succeed with our financing milestone. Furthermore, the financial support was fundamental in providing me and my co-founder, Daniel Blessing, with the resources to visit and interact with our potential investors and partners (primarily based in the US) and ensure the company was able to engage the appropriate parties to establish a solid foundation for this subsequent Seed financing.
You also participated in Venture Leaders Life Science in 2018 and were among the TOP 100 Swiss Startups in 2020. How did these achievements leverage your fundraising strategy?
Venture Leaders Life Sciences in 2018 was an important program for my personal entrepreneurial development and the subsequent foundation and development of HAYA. This program allowed me to present, obtain feedback, interact with and build relationships with a number of parties both from the venture capital and biopharma domains, which have subsequently been fundamental for HAYAs story. For example, it was at VL that I had the opportunity to meet and present to Markus Goebel, who, at that time, was the Managing Director at Novartis Venture Fund in Boston. We went on to develop an excellent long-term relationship, and Markus subsequently joined the Board of HAYA, playing an instrumental role in supporting the company and myself in securing our current Seed financing round. During the VL program, I had my first contact with Boston-based Broadview Ventures, who subsequently went on to lead our Seed financing round. Finally, VL served as a springboard for Daniel Blessing and me to tour the US, coast to coast, where we could meet with and secure several advocates (for example Scientific Advisory Board Members) who have played essential roles in HAYAs development and current financing.
What inspired you to found HAYA Therapeutics?
When I started my bachelor’s degree in 2001, the human genome had just been sequenced, and the research community was facing the somewhat shocking conclusion that less than 2% of our genetic code encodes proteins (genes), with the remaining 98% appearing somewhat meaningless and prematurely called “junk DNA.” I instantly became fascinated by this conviction that 98% of our genetic code was meaningless, which started my academic path toward understanding this “junk” portion of our genome. Over the subsequent two decades, it has emerged that contrary to being junk, this non-coding portion of our genetic code (now known as genomic dark matter) is actually the information processing circuitry within our genome that allow us to respond to the environment in health and, more importantly, appears to go ‘wrong’ in disease. This realization—that genomic dark matter and the non-coding RNAs generated by it potentially mediate the environment-genome interface that hardwires common and chronic diseases (like heart failure and other diseases caused by fibrosis and aging)—laid the scientific and conceptual foundations for HAYA. Furthermore, the recent emergence of RNA-targeting therapeutic modalities that allow us to effectively and safely ‘drug’ this genomic dark matter provided the commercial and translational rationale for HAYA to emerge and start advancing its therapeutic approach, targeting the dark matter RNAs that drive fibrosis.
What is your advice for the biotech entrepreneurs who want to launch their own companies in Switzerland?
My main advice would be to commit significant time to think about your problem with a “translational mindset.” One immediate personal realization was the difference between an interesting scientific observation and an academically driven scientific solution versus the real-world requirements of a solution that needs to be both clinically and commercially viable.
The HAYA co-founders Dr. Daniel Blessing (CTO) and Dr. Samir Ounzain (CEO)
“HAYA was founded to address the major burden of fibrotic diseases and has made tremendous progress over the last several years deciphering the roles of lncRNAs, a new class of regulatory molecules derived from the ‘dark matter’ of the human genome,” said Samir Ounzain, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of HAYA Therapeutics. “With the support of our world-class investor syndicate and this Seed financing round, we are excited to accelerate our development efforts and look forward to bringing this new solution to patients suffering from fibrosis and other chronic age-related diseases.”
Preclinical research conducted by Dr. Ounzain and colleagues at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) demonstrated the ability of HAYA’s lead program to halt and potentially reverse fibrosis in the heart. HAYA is preparing to initiate clinical trials with its Wisper targeting candidate in non-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, an orphan indication with limited treatment options. The company secured an exclusive license from CHUV for the Wisper asset.
HAYA also announced that Robert Williamson will join the company as executive chair to the board of directors. Additionally, Jens Eckstein, PhD, managing partner at Apollo Health Ventures, and Benjamin Kreitman of Broadview Ventures will join HAYA’s board. Dr. Ounzain and Daniel Blessing, PhD, co-founder and CTO of HAYA Therapeutics, are also board members.
“HAYA Therapeutics is developing uniquely tissue- and context-specific genetic medicines for the prevention and reversal of fibrotic diseases,” said Mr. Williamson, who is also president and CEO at BioTheryX, Inc. “We aim to leverage our novel biological insights into the roles of lncRNA to identify and inhibit organ-specific master regulators of myofibroblasts. This groundbreaking approach promises to generate potent, selective, engineered therapeutics that are safer and more effective than medicines currently in development for the treatment of challenging fibrotic diseases.”
“Cardiac fibrosis remains an untreated but critical component of heart failure pathophysiology. We believe HAYA Therapeutics has generated a novel and differentiated approach to prevent and potentially reverse cardiac fibrosis and look forward to supporting the team to bring this technology towards the clinic,” said Mr. Kreitman.
“Given our fund’s focus on mechanisms of aging and age-related diseases we already had non-coding RNA aka ‘The Dark Matter of the Genome’ on our radar. We are delighted to partner with leading scientists in this emerging field and are excited to bring efficacious therapeutics tackling age-related fibrosis to patients,” commented Dr. Eckstein.
Samir, you and your team just raised CHF 18 million. How will the funds help HAYA achieve its vision? HAYA’s vision is to develop precision tissue and cell-selective therapeutics that are safe, effective, and accessible for patients suffering from fibrotic diseases and other serious health conditions associated with aging. Our seed financing will allow us to accelerate our lead therapeutic candidate toward first-in-human clinical trials in addition to further developing and exploiting the power of our target identification engine, DiscoverHAYA™. The speed and potential of our engine to generate a pipeline of lncRNA targeting anti-fibrotics for many tissues, including the lung, has been a particularly exciting highlight during the previous year. We are delighted that our investor syndicate appreciates this potential. Our Seed financing allows us to now exploit and accelerate our efforts in multiple tissues and indications.
You won Venture Kick in 2018. How did it help you lay the foundation for your growth and fundraising?
Winning Venture Kick helped HAYA in many ways. First of all, the Kickers Camps and the associated support and feedback from the Venture Kick team helped us iterate and develop our value proposition, taking it to a level that helped us succeed with our financing milestone. Furthermore, the financial support was fundamental in providing me and my co-founder, Daniel Blessing, with the resources to visit and interact with our potential investors and partners (primarily based in the US) and ensure the company was able to engage the appropriate parties to establish a solid foundation for this subsequent Seed financing.
You also participated in Venture Leaders Life Science in 2018 and were among the TOP 100 Swiss Startups in 2020. How did these achievements leverage your fundraising strategy?
Venture Leaders Life Sciences in 2018 was an important program for my personal entrepreneurial development and the subsequent foundation and development of HAYA. This program allowed me to present, obtain feedback, interact with and build relationships with a number of parties both from the venture capital and biopharma domains, which have subsequently been fundamental for HAYAs story. For example, it was at VL that I had the opportunity to meet and present to Markus Goebel, who, at that time, was the Managing Director at Novartis Venture Fund in Boston. We went on to develop an excellent long-term relationship, and Markus subsequently joined the Board of HAYA, playing an instrumental role in supporting the company and myself in securing our current Seed financing round. During the VL program, I had my first contact with Boston-based Broadview Ventures, who subsequently went on to lead our Seed financing round. Finally, VL served as a springboard for Daniel Blessing and me to tour the US, coast to coast, where we could meet with and secure several advocates (for example Scientific Advisory Board Members) who have played essential roles in HAYAs development and current financing.
What inspired you to found HAYA Therapeutics?
When I started my bachelor’s degree in 2001, the human genome had just been sequenced, and the research community was facing the somewhat shocking conclusion that less than 2% of our genetic code encodes proteins (genes), with the remaining 98% appearing somewhat meaningless and prematurely called “junk DNA.” I instantly became fascinated by this conviction that 98% of our genetic code was meaningless, which started my academic path toward understanding this “junk” portion of our genome. Over the subsequent two decades, it has emerged that contrary to being junk, this non-coding portion of our genetic code (now known as genomic dark matter) is actually the information processing circuitry within our genome that allow us to respond to the environment in health and, more importantly, appears to go ‘wrong’ in disease. This realization—that genomic dark matter and the non-coding RNAs generated by it potentially mediate the environment-genome interface that hardwires common and chronic diseases (like heart failure and other diseases caused by fibrosis and aging)—laid the scientific and conceptual foundations for HAYA. Furthermore, the recent emergence of RNA-targeting therapeutic modalities that allow us to effectively and safely ‘drug’ this genomic dark matter provided the commercial and translational rationale for HAYA to emerge and start advancing its therapeutic approach, targeting the dark matter RNAs that drive fibrosis.
What is your advice for the biotech entrepreneurs who want to launch their own companies in Switzerland?
My main advice would be to commit significant time to think about your problem with a “translational mindset.” One immediate personal realization was the difference between an interesting scientific observation and an academically driven scientific solution versus the real-world requirements of a solution that needs to be both clinically and commercially viable.
The HAYA co-founders Dr. Daniel Blessing (CTO) and Dr. Samir Ounzain (CEO)