NEWS & INSIGHTS

Luxembourg, 19 February 2019: 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.”

About Helsinn International Services sarl

Helsinn International Services sarl is the Helsinn subsidiary which provides a range of advisory services and strategic activities to the Group and its specific companies. In particular, it acts as the advisory company to Helsinn Investment Fund.

About Helsinn Investment Fund S.A., SICAR

The Helsinn Investment Fund is focused on early-stage investments in areas of high unmet patient need. Backed by the Helsinn Group, and guided by Helsinn’s core values of quality, integrity and respect, Helsinn Investment Fund aims to help companies with innovative technologies to transform new ideas into commercial solutions with the potential to impact health-related quality of life of patients.

Drawing on Helsinn’s over 40 years of investment into research and development and commercial expertise, the investment fund selects companies with technologies in a range of areas including cancer therapeutics and diagnostics, cancer supportive care, metabolic and gastrointestinal disorders, and dermatology conditions.

For more information, visit www.helsinninvestmentfund.com

About the Helsinn Group

Helsinn is a privately owned pharmaceutical group with an extensive portfolio of marketed cancer care products and a robust drug development pipeline. Since 1976, Helsinn has been improving the everyday lives of patients, guided by core family values of respect, integrity and quality. The Group works across pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices and nutritional supplements and has expertise in research, development, manufacture and the commercialisation of therapeutic and supportive care products for cancer, pain and inflammation and gastroenterology. In 2016, Helsinn created the Helsinn Investment Fund to support early-stage investment opportunities in areas of unmet patient need. The company is headquartered in Lugano, Switzerland, with operating subsidiaries in Switzerland, Ireland, the U.S., Monaco and China, as well as a product presence in approximately 190 countries globally.

To learn more about Helsinn Group please visit www.helsinn.com

About Gain Therapeutics SA

Gain Therapeutics (www.gaintherapeutics.com) is a preclinical stage biotech company developing a class of next generation brain-penetrant non-competitive pharmacological chaperones for the treatment of devastating diseases using the proprietary SEE-Tx® technology. The company has several discovery programs in lysosomal storage diseases and CNS indications at various stages of development, all of which validate the platform and offer significant partnering opportunities. Gain Therapeutics was established in 2017, in Lugano by experienced biotech and pharma entrepreneurs. It was initially financed by TiVenture (www.tiventure.ch), a seed and early-stage venture capital fund investing in technology-driven companies in southern Switzerland belonging to the Fondazione Centenario BancaStato.

For more information:

Helsinn Group Media Contact

Paola Bonvicini
Group Head of Communication
Lugano, Switzerland
Tel: +41 (0) 91 985 21 21
Info-hhc@helsinn.com
For more information, please visit www.helsinn.com and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Vimeo.

Gain Therapeutics SA

Manolo Bellotto, PhD
General Manager
Via Peri 9D
Lugano, Switzerland
+ 41 (0) 91 921 15 24
mbellotto@gaintherapeutics.com