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

LAUSANNE, Switzerland and SAN DIEGO – July 1, 2024 – 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.

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 Schönenberger, 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.

Media Contacts:

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

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