Venture Leaders Life Sciences 2018 - Meet Samir Ounzain of HAYA Therapeutics
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This coming Sunday, ten Biotech and Medtech entrepreneurs from Switzerland will have the opportunity to pitch in front inverstors in one of the major Life Sciences hub worldwide: Boston. Here we find out a little bit about Samir Ounzain, HAYA Therapeutics CEO and his motivation for applying for the program.
Who are you and what is HAYA Therapeutics?I am a molecular cardiologist by training and have spent my career studying the role of genomic dark matter (previously called junk DNA) in heart development and disease. This led me to discover a new molecule called Wisper, which is the first heart-specific regulator of cardiac fibrosis. This ground-breaking discovery represents the scientific foundation for the HAYA Therapeutics. HAYA Therapeutics is dedicated to treating heart failure through the discovery and development of innovative targeted first-in-class RNA-based therapeutics, with a specific focus on long noncoding RNAs.
Why did you choose Boston as your business development destination?
Boston is one of the global hubs for innovation and investment in the Biotech/Biopharma industry and represents a centre of gravity with an incredible ecosystem ideal for early stage biopharmaceutical companies like HAYA Therapeutics. Furthermore, HAYA is looking to engage with VCs to finance our Series A and Boston contains a high concentration of investors with a specific interest and expertise in therapeutics and biopharmaceuticals.
What do you hope to achieve from the trip?
There are two primary objectives from the trip. The first objective is to interact with large BioTech/Pharma potential partners (i.e. Amgen, Novartis, Ionis) who could help us in our development and ultimately take our product to market. Secondly, we hope to initiate contact with potential Series A investors as Boston is home to many established VCs interested in Biotherapeutics.
What doest the Venture Leaders Life Sciences experience beneficial mean for your company?
Through Venture Leaders, we believe we will be able to connect with key partners and investors which without the program would prove more challenging and less effective.
What is pushing you towards international expansion?
Developing a biopharmaceutical is a global enterprise and requires a global/international approach. Our therapy could impact millions of people globally and an international understanding and approach is critical for the success of our development plan and our ability to take this product to market.
What do you foresee as the largest hurdles towards expansion into the Boston area?
Arguably our greatest hurdle is that our indication, heart failure, has historically been viewed as a high-risk problem with a large regulatory/pricing burden and poor return on investment (ROI). Many of our potential partners and investors in the Boston area have a preference for oncology and rare diseases. Convincing them represents a hurdle, although we believe our unique approach would have huge benefits and provide an excellent ROI.
What makes you most nervous or excited about the trip?
What excites me the most is being in arguably the global centre of gravity in our industry and the ability to interact with future partners and investors. What makes me the most nervous is how these investors and partners will react to a therapy for heart failure, classically one of the least attractive indications for investment with a poor ROI.
Follow the Venture Leaders Life Sciences roadshow on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag #vleadearsLifeScience.
Venture Leaders Life Sciences is co-organized by Venturelab and swissnex Boston, and supported by Kellerhals Carrard, digitalswitzerland, Canton de Vaud, Canton of Zurich, Wyss Foundation, EY entreprenenur of the year, EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, Paul Scherrer Institut and University of Zurich.
