Gain Therapeutics has received a €1 million investment from fellow Swiss-based company, Helsinn Group, to help in areas of unmet patient needs. The capital was obtained from the Helsinn Investment Fund and will be used to develop treatments for lysosomal storage disorders, CNS indications and additional diseases.
Gain, headquartered in Lugano, also has a branch in Barcelona that exclusively licences an advanced computational technology, Site-directed Enzyme Enhancement Therapy, (SEE-Tx). SEE-Tx is used to identify next-generation non-competitive pharmacological chaperones.
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 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. These will be the focus of the investment.
Commenting on the news, Lorenzo Leoni, CEO and co-founder of Gain Therapeutics, said: “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.”
This investment is part of the series A funding by Gain, which closed today. Other investors are VitaTech (€1.1m) and existing investor TiVenture (€0.4m).