Nabanita Nawar (left) and Pimyupa Manaswiyoungkul (right) are the co-founders of HDAX Therapeutics. (Photo provided by Nabanita Nawar.)
When the Building a Biotech Venture Pitch Competition was held in 2021 for the first time, Nabanita Nawar and Pimyupa Manaswiyoungkul, co-founders of the winning team, HDAX Therapeutics, knew the science they were working on had potential.
Now, three years later, HDAX Therapeutics has built on its initial success story by closing an oversubscribed *$5.0 million seed round. HDAX Therapeutics are receiving this support from both Canadian and American investors despite a “challenging market” for biotechnology investments, says Nawar.
U.S. venture capital firm SeedFolio, as well as Ontario-based partners FACIT and the Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (TIAP) led the financing. Other participants include Eos Bioinnovation and the Ontario Centre of Innovation.
Nawar, chief executive officer of HDAX Therapeutics, says that the team’s early win at the Building a Biotech Venture Pitch Competition was their “first hint of external validation.”
“That really helped us go full force to developing and creating HDAX,” Nawar says. She and Manaswiyoungkul, who is HDAX Therapeutics’ chief operations officer, continued to work on the venture and a few months after that first pitch competition win, which included a $25,000 prize, the pair officially formed HDAX Therapeutics.
Grasping with ‘two hands’
The team aims to develop therapeutics using a “dual binding technology” that targets a disease-promoting protein, called HDAC6. When HDAC6 is functioning abnormally, it can contribute to a wide range of diseases including neurological and cardiometabolic diseases and inflammation — many of which do not have treatment options or have limited ones at best. HDAX Therapeutics’ therapies will aim to treat disease by regulating HDAC6.
Nawar and Manaswiyoungkul were both PhD students in Patrick Gunning’s chemistry lab at the University of Toronto (U of T) Mississauga. When they began their research as an academic project in 2016, they were interested in targeting HDAC6 but wanted to do more than just make incremental improvements on science that was already out there.
Nawar says the advantage of the technology is in the way the therapy strongly binds to its target, the HDAC6, which Nawar compares to hands grasping an object.
“Other therapies that are also working on targeting HDAC6 kind of grasp onto the target with one hand — a singular binding. We can do it with two hands because it’s a dual interaction. And that has really allowed us to improve how strongly and how long it engages the target.”
The financing will support the company’s progress towards preclinical and further advancement of its pipeline programs.
“It’s a really pivotal moment for us. We’re so thrilled that this financing round will help us move closer to making a meaningful difference in patients’ lives,” says Manaswiyoungkul. “We are deeply grateful to our supporters, investors and advisors, who have all been so instrumental in helping us get to this point.”
‘A winding scientific journey’
Nawar describes HDAX Therapeutics’ experience so far as “a winding scientific journey that led to a meaningful company when we saw that the science was showing a superiority in contrast to what patients get today.”
This journey started with the Building a Biotech Venture educational program, hosted by U of T’s Medicine by Design, Precision Medicine Initiative (PRiME) and Health Innovation Hub (H2i). For several months, through workshops and mentoring, participants learn how to shape their regenerative or precision medicine research into a real-world venture. Participants can choose to apply for the pitch competition after completing the program.
“It’s a really good learning experience and I recommend it to graduate students, even if they don’t end up starting a company. I think it gives you a lot of knowledge that you don’t get in traditional graduate school,” Nawar says.
The Building a Biotech Venture program helped the HDAX Therapeutics team shape their venture, and the team has had many accomplishments since then.
They matured the company through accelerator and incubator programs in the U.S. and Canada, including H2i, an on-campus accelerator, and Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), which offers an objectives-based program for startups. Founded by U of T’s Rotman School of Management, CDL is now a global program.
HDAX Therapeutics has also won more than a dozen pitch competitions including large prizes at the ECHO Discovery Pitch Competition ($250,000) and Berkeley SkyDeck ($200,000 USD).
Another milestone moment for Nawar and Manaswiyoungkul was winning a spot on the 2023 Forbes 30 under 30 list. Paul Santerre, a biomedical engineer and University of Toronto professor who also leads H2i, nominated them, which came as a surprise to Nawar.
“One day we just woke up, and Forbes was contacting us, saying, ‘Hey, Paul nominated you, can you give us more information?’ says Nawar. “It’s another example of how the U of T community has helped us tremendously.”
Santerre says H2i supports more the 250 ventures, and he was motivated to nominate Nawar and Manaswiyoungkul because they deserved the visibility.
“HDAX is led by two very smart women who won’t quit, and who understand that the Canadian taxpayer values education. And they know that academia must move beyond curiosity to enable paradigm shifts that impact real lives,” Santerre says.
This year’s Build a Biotech Venture program has launched. Join an info session on Nov. 21 or check out the website for more information.
*All figures in CAD unless otherwise noted
