HAYA Therapeutics Co-Founders Win Inaugural Andreas & Thomas Struengmann Award
July 01 2024 - 1:05AM
Business Wire
First-of-its-kind award recognizes HAYA CEO
Samir Ounzain, Ph.D. and CTO Daniel Blessing, Ph.D. for their
entrepreneurial vision in life sciences in the DACH region
HAYA Therapeutics, SA, a company developing RNA-guided
programmable precision medicines focused on long non-coding RNAs
(lncRNAs), today announced that HAYA’s Co-Founders Samir Ounzain
and Daniel Blessing have received the inaugural Andreas &
Thomas Struengmann Award.
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HAYA Therapeutics’ Co-Founders Dr. Samir
Ounzain, CEO (right) and Dr. Daniel Blessing, CTO received the
inaugural Andreas & Thomas Struengmann Award for their
entrepreneurial vision in life sciences at the Festival of the
Future at the Deutsches Museum in Munich on Friday, June 28, 2024.
HAYA Therapeutics is developing RNA-guided programmable precision
medicines focused on long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). (Photo:
Business Wire)
Recognizing entrepreneurial vision and talent in the life
sciences among the DACH region, which includes Germany, Austria and
Switzerland, the award honors the efforts of Drs. Ounzain and
Blessing in creating a company developing an innovative RNA
therapeutic approach targeting lncRNAs for heart disease and a
broad range of chronic and underserved conditions. Representatives
from the award committee presented the award and the €100,000 cash
prize to Drs. Ounzain and Blessing at the Festival of the Future at
the Deutsches Museum in Munich on Friday, June 28, 2024.
“It is a privilege to receive the Andreas & Thomas
Struengmann Award, named to honor two pioneers in the biotech and
life sciences industry. We founded HAYA with a mission to bring
RNA-based precision medicines to patients with underserved rare and
chronic diseases. We are excited for the next phases of HAYA’s
growth, especially as we prepare to bring our first program,
HTX-001, into clinical studies,” said Dr. Ounzain, CEO and
Co-Founder of HAYA.
HAYA’s co-founders were among five life science company and
their respective founders selected by the award committee for their
innovative mindset and talent for execution in translating
biomedical research into therapeutic approaches. The jury consisted
of biotechnology visionaries, including the award's namesakes,
Prof. Dr. Özlem Türeci, the CMO and Co-Founder of BioNTech and
Prof. Dr. Helmut Sch�nenberger, CEO and Co-founder of
UnternehmerTUM.
“We would like to thank the Andreas & Thomas Struengmann
Award committee for their support and validation as we continue to
build HAYA into a company with a revolutionary lncRNA platform and
robust product pipeline. We also recognize the incredible work by
the entire HAYA team in helping us progress forward and advance the
next-generation of dark genome targets and therapeutics,” commented
Dr. Blessing, CTO and Co-Founder of HAYA.
HAYA is developing an innovative platform to gain novel insights
into the biology of disease cell states and developing programmable
therapeutics targeting regulatory RNAs derived from the dark
genome. The company’s lead candidate, HTX-001, is an antisense
oligonucleotide targeting Wisper that is a heart-specific lncRNA
known to be a fundamental regulator of pathological cardiac
fibrosis in the context of heart failure. A first-in-human clinical
study in nonobstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is expected to
start in the near future.
“Together with the award committee and this year’s jury, we
congratulate Samir and Daniel and hope that this award provides an
additional validation as HAYA’s begins the next stage of
development as a company. They have proven their ability to
translate their findings from the lab into a differentiated
cell-state-modifying platform that has significant potential to
provide novel, disease-modifying therapeutics for the heart and a
range of other disease areas,” Andreas and Thomas Struengmann said
in a joint statement. “Throughout our selection process, it has
been a tremendous privilege to view the outstanding companies
nominated from across the DACH region and, in particular, get to
know the finalists whose successes made the final decision a
difficult one to make.”
About the Andreas & Thomas Struengmann Award
The award was established in 2024 to recognize outstanding
entrepreneurs realizing revolutionary ideas in the DACH life
science sector. The goal is to reward exceptional achievements with
a prestigious prize and to further the development of the next
generation of leaders in this space. The award was named to honor
twin brothers Andreas Struengmann, M.D., and Thomas Struengmann,
Ph.D., who are among the important entrepreneurs, visionaries and
investors in the life science sector. As the founders of Hexal,
they achieved extraordinary entrepreneurial success and as
investors, they have continued to repeat that success for more than
20 years by building and developing leading companies across the
industry, including Mainz-based BioNTech. Learn more at
https://struengmannaward.de/.
About HAYA Therapeutics
HAYA Therapeutics is a precision medicines company developing
programmable therapeutics targeting regulatory RNAs derived from
the dark genome, a cell information processing unit, to reprogram
pathological cell states for a broad range of diseases, including
cardiovascular disease and cancer. The company is using its
innovative platform to gain novel insights into the biology of
disease cell states and the long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) that
regulate them. HAYA’s lead therapeutic candidate is HTX-001, an
antisense oligonucleotide targeting Wisper that is a heart-specific
lncRNA known to be a fundamental regulator of pathological cardiac
fibrosis in the context of heart failure. The company is also
developing a pipeline of lncRNA-targeting precision therapies for
the cell-specific treatment of diseases in other tissues and
disease areas, including the lungs and the tumor
microenvironment.
Headquartered at the life sciences park Biopôle in Lausanne,
Switzerland with laboratory facilities at JLABS @ San Diego, HAYA
is led by a world-class team of experts in programmable and
precision RNA-targeted therapeutics and is supported by a strong
investor consortium. HAYA’s mission is to identify and develop
breakthrough disease-modifying therapeutics with the potential for
greater efficacy, safety, and accessibility than existing
treatments. For more information on the company, please visit our
website at www.hayatx.com. Follow us on X and LinkedIn.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240630653670/en/
Media: HAYA Therapeutics Tim Ingersoll Email:
tim@linndencom.com
The Andreas & Thomas Struengmann Award Trophic
Communications Stephanie May, PhD Phone: +49 (0) 171 185 56 82
Email: athos@trophic.eu