SAN DIEGO – HAYA Therapeutics, a 35-person biotech company with presence in Switzerland and San Diego, has entered a collaboration agreement with Eli Lilly and Company to develop weight-loss drugs that target a specific type of RNA.
The publicly traded pharmaceutical giant will pay the early-stage company an undisclosed amount up front that includes an equity investment.
CEO and Co-Founder
Haya Therapeutics
Under a multi-year agreement, Eli Lilly will leverage Haya Therapeutics’ proprietary RNA-guided genome platform to identify drug targets to address the chronic conditions.
“This partnership with Lilly demonstrates the significant advances we have made with our revolutionary regulatory genome RNA-guided platform and validates the potential of targeting lncRNA for chronic conditions,” said Samir Ounzain, CEO and co-founder of Haya Therapeutics.
“We look forward to working closely with Lilly, an established leader in developing treatments for metabolic diseases, to help bring patients novel disease-modifying therapeutics that could offer greater efficacy, safety and accessibility than currently available treatments,” said Ounzain.
Focused on RNA Therapeutics
HAYA Therapeutics is a precision medicine that raised $25 million since its founding. It is developing RNA-guided programmable therapeutics targeting cardiovascular disease and cancer.
These RNA molecules are not translated into proteins but, rather, interact with and regulate biological processes, according to the company.
“We’re focused on leveraging the power of the dark genome,” said Ounzain, adding that the biotech startup is working to developing “precise and potent” RNA therapies that drive cell-state reprogramming.
In May 2021, Boston-based venture capital firm Broadview Ventures led the startup’s seed financing round. Other backers include Apollo Health Ventures, BERNINA BioInvest, 4See Ventures, Schroder Adveq, Viva BioInnovator and Humboldt Fund, among others.
“Our goal at Humboldt Fund is to back visionary founders and early-stage biotechs disrupting the field through innovative technologies that can improve human health using creative and novel platforms,” said Sebastian Bernales, general partner at Humboldt Fund.
“HAYA is developing the next generation of RNA-based treatments with its unique approach of targeting lncRNA, and we enthusiastically support their efforts in developing precision therapeutics,” said Bernales.
Multi-Year Agreement with Eli Lilly
Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, Haya’s platform will support preclinical drug discovery for the hot obesity market to identify and validate multiple tissue-, disease- and cell-specific long non-coding RNA targets (lncRNA).
Therapeutics developed as part of the collaboration could potentially reprogram disease-driving cell states for better efficacy and less toxicity than current treatments, according to the companies.
Long non-coding RNAs make up around 98% of the human genome, dubbed the “dark genome.” LncRNAs regulate disease-associated gene pathways and proteins and trigger a disease-associated cell state.
This is Haya’s first Big Pharma collaboration, but not the first Big Pharma investment in lncRNA companies. Last week, Bayer and NextRNA forged a pact in the up-and-coming space to jointly develop lncRNA therapeutics for oncology. NextRNA received $547 upfront to develop two first-in-class small molecules targeting lncRNAs.
The collaboration with Haya could lead to the next-generation of obesity medicines, beyond the booming GLP-1 market, which is estimated to be worth $47.4 billion in 2024 with a massive compound annual growth rate of 33% by 2032.
CTO
Haya Therapeutics
Looking Forward
Ounzain, who co-founded the company alongside Daniel Blessing its chief technology officer, credited San Diego’s startup ecosystem, including the Johnson and Johnson’s JLABS program, with helping the company get introduced to large pharmaceutical corporations as well as recruit top talent.
Haya employs roughly 35 staffers and was founded five years ago. It raised seed funding of about $25 million since May of 2021. The biotech startup plan to expand its research and development (R&D) team in both United States and Switzerland.
“We are excited to be a part of the San Diego ecosystem and it is very important for Haya Therapeutics,” said Ounzain. “We became a member of JLABS in San Diego to leverage the infrastructure and network provided by JLABS to startup companies. The move-in ready shared facility allowed us to get a quick start, and the network is also helpful for our growth.”
Haya Therapeutics
FOUNDED: 2019
CEO: Samir Ounzain
HEADQUARTERS: San Diego and Switzerland
EMPLOYEES: 35+
BUSINESS: Precision therapeutics company developing drugs to treat fibrotic diseases.
FUNDING: $25 million
WEBSITE: www.hayatx.com
CONTACT: info@hayatx.com
NOTABLE: Co. is participating in the JLABS program.
