Helsinn Investment Fund S.A, SICAR, a fund focused on early-stage investment opportunities in areas of high unmet patient need, today announces that it has made a €1 Million investment in Gain Therapeutics SA.
Gain Therapeutics SA is a private company, based in Lugano and with a branch in Barcelona, that exclusively licensed an advanced computational technology, Site-directed Enzyme Enhancement Therapy, (SEE-Tx®) used to identify next generation non-competitive pharmacological chaperones, under the scientific management of its inventor, Prof. Xavier Barril. This platform technology, applicable to all diseases with a known genetic mutation in target proteins, allows the identification of brain-penetrant small molecules that provide a gain-of-function of misfolded proteins. Gain Therapeutics has already identified molecules for the treatment of a group of metabolic disorders called lysosomal storage disorders and some chronic degenerative diseases of the nervous system.
Helsinn Investment Fund invests in companies working across a range of medical areas, with a focus on innovative, early-stage technologies that will yield marketed therapies with a positive impact on quality of life of patients.
Riccardo Braglia, Helsinn Group Vice Chairman and CEO, commented: “Gain Therapeutics has a unique and very compelling platform technology which will hopefully offer huge potential to help lysosomal storage disorders, CNS indications and additional diseases. This is a perfect example of the kind of early stage innovation which the Helsinn Investment Fund was set up to support and we’re delighted to be able to add this to our growing portfolio of promising assets.”
Lorenzo Leoni, CEO, and co-founder of Gain Therapeutics added: “The Helsinn Investment Fund has an impressive track record of supporting early-stage businesses with innovative science and we are very pleased to have the Fund as an investor. We believe we have an exciting and compelling approach to lysosomal storage disorders and we appreciate investors like Helsinn Investment Fund which have vision and strategic expertise.”