HAYA Therapteutics enters major collaboration to advance RNA-based drug discovery

HAYA Therapeutics has announced a multi-year collaboration with Eli Lilly, potentially earning up to USD 1 billion in milestone payments to advance RNA-guided therapies for obesity and metabolic disorders.

HAYA Therapeutics, a leading Vaud-based biotech specializing in precision RNA-guided therapies, has entered into a major partnership with global pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company. The collaboration will utilize HAYA’s advanced regulatory genomics platform to identify RNA-based drug targets for obesity and related metabolic disorders and marks a major milestone in the company’s growth.

Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, HAYA will receive an upfront payment, including an equity investment from Lilly, and is eligible to receive up to USD 1 billion in preclinical, clinical and commercial milestone payments, as well as royalties on future product sales. The partnership underscores the growing interest in HAYA’s unique approach to targeting long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) for the development of novel therapeutics.

HAYA’s proprietary platform enables the identification of tissue-, disease- and cell-specific lncRNA targets, offering potentially more effective and less toxic treatments by reprogramming disease-driving cell states. The collaboration with Lilly will focus on identifying and validating multiple novel lncRNA targets for obesity and metabolic disorders, areas of significant unmet medical need.

“This partnership with Lilly demonstrates the significant progress we have made with our revolutionary regulatory genome RNA-guided platform and validates the potential of targeting lncRNA for chronic diseases,” said Samir Ounzain, CEO of HAYA Therapeutics. “We look forward to working closely with Lilly to develop novel disease-modifying therapeutics that may offer greater efficacy, safety and accessibility than current treatments.”

HAYA Therapeutics, headquartered at the Biopôle life sciences campus in Lausanne and with laboratory facilities at JLABS in San Diego, continues to push the boundaries of precision medicine. The company’s lead therapeutic candidate, HTX-001, is in development for the treatment of heart failure, and HAYA is also advancing a pipeline of lncRNA-targeted therapies for cardiovascular, metabolic and cancer diseases. Ranked first in the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award for 2023, this partnership with Lilly strengthens HAYA’s position as a key player in the field of RNA-guided therapies.

With this collaboration, HAYA Therapeutics strengthens its innovative approach to the treatment of chronic diseases and highlights Western Switzerland’s importance in the life sciences and biotechnology.