LAUSANNE, Switzerland & SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HAYA Therapeutics, SA, a company developing RNA-guided programmable precision medicines focused on long non-coding RNAs, today announced that Douglas L. Mann, M.D. is joining as Chairperson of the company’s Clinical Advisory Board.
“HAYA’s lead product candidate HTX-001 is a targeted, RNA-guided programmable therapeutic and constitutes a first-in-class approach to specifically modify cardiac fibrosis, a pathological cell state linked to the progression of heart failure and patient outcomes. Our differentiated cell state modifying platform has the potential to drive the discovery of novel drugs for both rare and common diseases, in the context of different tissues and disease areas outside of the heart and cardiovascular including liver, lung, kidneys and the tumor microenvironment,” said Samir Ounzain, Ph.D., Co-founder and CEO of HAYA Therapeutics. “As a highly recognized cardiologist and researcher, Dr. Mann’s expertise will be instrumental in pioneering and advancing translational therapies like HTX-001 towards the clinic and in-need patients. The whole team at HAYA is excited to welcome Douglas to the HAYA family.”
Dr. Mann is recognized as the Ada L. Steininger Professorship in Cardiology, and Professor of Medicine and Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology in the John T. Milliken Department of Medicine at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. His research focuses on the role of innate immunity and cryoprotection in heart failure and the basic mechanisms that contribute to left ventricular remodeling and reverse left ventricular remodeling. As a researcher, he has authored almost 400 peer-reviewed publications in world-renowned journals, including JAMA Cardiology, Circulation, Nature Cardiovascular Research, and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Dr. Mann has also served as Principal Investigator for multiple Phase II and III studies evaluating inflammation and cardiac remodeling in clinical heart failure, including RENAISSANCE, RENEWAL, Acorn Pivotal Trial, INOVATE-HF and the LIFE trial.
Among his prestigious recognitions, Dr. Mann achieved the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Heart Failure Society of America and the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Basic to Translational Science. Dr. Mann holds an M.D. from Temple University School of Medicine and a B.A. in Biology from Lafayette College.
Members of HAYA’s Clinical Advisory Board:
- Douglas Mann, M.D. (Chairperson)
- Ahmad Masri, M.D., M.S.
- Christopher Miller, B.Sc. (Hons), MBChB (Hons), Ph.D., FRCP
- Erik Schelbert, M.D., M.S.
“Through their platform, HAYA developed HTX-001, a targeted fibrosis-modifying therapy for heart failure. Since patients with non-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a rare disease, have limited treatment options, it is essential to bring new therapeutic interventions into clinical testing,” said Dr. Mann. “Beyond non-obstructive HCM, the unique properties of HTX-001 potentially allow the candidate to be used for the treatment in other cardiac indications. I’m excited to work with Samir and the entire HAYA team to support their mission of developing novel precision medicines, starting with treatments for heart failure.”
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 Twitter and LinkedIn.
