The AIM-HI Accelerator Fund is pleased to announce that the 2024 Women’s Venture Competition’s first prize winner with distinction goes to HDAX Therapeutics led by its CEO and Co-Founder, Nabanita Nawar, Ph.D, and the Second Prize Winner goes to ARMA BIO, led by Co-Founder & CSO, Paraskevi Giannakakou, Ph.D.

The 2024 AIM-HI Women’s Venture Competition Committee reviewed more than 50 applications from 10 countries, including Canada, Ghana, India, Israel, Norway, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, and the United States. The Women’s Venture Competition winner must pass a rigorous evaluation by three of the competition’s blue-ribbon Committees: Selection, Judging, and Investment Due Diligence, whose members are world-class key opinion leaders, life sciences industry experts, investors, and entrepreneurs.

The Women’s Venture Competition is a first-of-its-kind program that provides funding, coaching, and networking opportunities to women-led oncology startups. The competition’s review committees provided assessments and recommendations for recognizing the Women’s Venture Competition winners based on scientific and clinical merits and business impact for cancer patients.

The Winners will be recognized at a Luncheon Award Ceremony with certificates and honorariums during the 2024 Global Summit and Award Ceremonies for Cancer Research & Entrepreneurship, co-hosted by AIM-HI and the National Foundation for Cancer Research on October 18, 2024, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

Driven by over 7 years of research, HDAX has developed a novel modality which unlocks a never-seen-before 2-site binding mechanism for a disease driver protein, HDAC6. This scientific breakthrough tackles key drug development obstacles such as weak binding, off-target toxicities, and less than optimal pharmacokinetics. HDAX aims to deliver the first-ever disease-modifying therapy for conditions with insufficient standard of care, starting with chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN)—a condition experienced by up to 80% of cancer patients that currently has no drug to slow, halt, prevent, or reverse the disease, leaving patients with only symptomatic management. HDAX’s approach to CIPN treatment has revealed significant results with full disease reversal in symptoms and cognitive deficits (including pain and numbness) in vivo, paving the way for potentially transformative therapeutic benefits in patients.

ARMA BIO is developing first-in-class molecular glue degraders (MGDs) targeting both androgen receptor (AR) and its most prevalent splice variant, AR-V7, in men with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). If successful, the development of the company’s lead MGD candidates will revolutionize prostate cancer therapeutics and dramatically improve patient outcomes.

“HDAX was purpose-built to address the challenges of developing effective drugs targeting HDAC6, for diseases such as chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathies (CIPN). To have this honor to be the First Prize winner with Distinction of the 2024 AIM-HI Women’s Venture Competition is a defining moment for myself, and the entire team at HDAX. We have a vision that is starting to become a reality for cancer patients. Being recognized by AIM-HI and its impressive committees gives all of us at HDAX the boost we needed to continue and double down in our fight for patients as we move closer to bringing our therapies to market,”says Nabanita Nawar, Ph.D., HDAX Therapeutics CEO and Co-Founder.

AOA Dx and its CEO & Co-Founder, Oriana Papin-Zoghbi, were chosen as the People’s Choice Winner for “Best Pitch” by a public audience voting for their favorite pitch presentation. AOA Dx is pioneering the field of glycolipids through the utilization of tumor marker gangliosides, the next class of biomarkers in early cancer detection.

“I applaud the transformative research of HDAX Therapeutics, ARMA BIO, and AOA Dx and their commitment to innovative research in our shared vision to provide new hope for cancer patients. Although we have seen progress, many medical breakthroughs and transformative technologies continue to struggle to progress into viable treatments due to limited funding for early-stage enterprises often deemed too risky for conventional venture capital or biopharmaceutical firms, the hurdles are even greater for women-led ventures,” said Sujuan Ba, Ph.D., Co-founder and CEO of AIM-HI. “The Women’s Venture Competition’s goal of bolstering women-led startups at the forefront of life-saving innovations through strategic partnerships and empowering these enterprises with access to our global network of influential thought leaders is what drives AIM-HI to recognize and award these women-led oncology startups to continue their vital work in our collective effort to beat cancer.”

AIM-HI launched the Women’s Venture Competition in 2020 to empower women scientist-entrepreneurs who are underfunded and underserved in the life science industry. AIM-HI harnesses the collective efforts of donors, visionary scientists, and entrepreneurs through its venture philanthropy approach to advance the development of promising discoveries to breakthrough therapies for patients.

 The 2024 Women’s Venture Competition committees are comprised of the following persons: (listed in alphabetical order):

  • Anna D. Barker, Ph.D., Chief Strategy Officer, Lawrence J. Ellison Institute of Technology
  • Webster K. Cavenee, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Medicine, University of California San Diego
  • Aleksandra Filipovic, M.D., Ph.D., Head of Oncology, PureTech Health
  • Pamela Garzone, Ph.D., Chief Development Officer, Anixa Biosciences
  • Dimitra Georganopoulou, Ph.D., General Partner, Qral Ventures
  • Gary Gordon, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Medical Advisor and Board Member, Global Coalition for Adaptive Research
  • Daniel Johnson, Ph.D., Professor and Vice Chair of Research, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (OHNS), University of California San Francisco
  • Raju Kucherlapati, Ph.D., Paul C. Cabot Professor of Genetics and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
  • Matthew Lawler, Entrepreneur-In-Residence, Blackbird Laboratories
  • Brian Leyland-Jones, MBBS, Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer, National Foundation for Cancer Research
  • Scott Lippman, M.D., Distinguished Professor of Medicine & Associate Vice Chancellor for Cancer Research, UC San Diego Health
  • Jimmy Lu, JD, MBA, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Eos BioInnovation
  • Eva Martin, M.D., Senior Director, Alliance and Asset Management, Roche Pharma Partnering
  • Kornelia Polyak, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Medicine, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
  • Michael Salgaller, Ph.D., Supervisory Invention Development & Marketing Specialist, National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute
  • Libia F. Scheller, Ph.D., MBA, Global Head Oncology-Cooperative Groups & Strategic Alliances, Bayer Health Care Pharmaceuticals
  • Fei Shen, Ph.D., Managing Director, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund USA
  • Matt Tremblay, Ph.D., CEO, Blackbird Laboratories

Previous Women’s Venture Competition First Prize Winners Include:

2023 – March Biosciences, Sarah Hein, Ph.D., CEO

2022 – RiverWalk Therapeutics, Johanna Webb, President & CEO

2021 – ARDAN PHARMA, María Varela, CEO

2020 – Privo Technologies, Manijeh Goldberg, Ph.D., CEO

About the AIM-HI Accelerator Fund

The AIM-HI Accelerator Fund (AIM-HI) is a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization created in 2019 by the National Foundation for Cancer Research to provide oncology startups with the resources they need to drive innovative discoveries forward, out of the lab, to the clinics, and eventually to the people battling cancer. Our mission is to bridge the gap between research breakthroughs and clinical trials, aiming to develop innovative cancer therapies and technologies that can save patients’ lives. For more information, visit AIM-HIaccelerator.org.

About the National Foundation for Cancer Research

The National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization co-founded in 1973 by Nobel Laureate Dr. Albert Szent-Györgyi and Attorney/Business Entrepreneur Franklin Salisbury, Sr. NFCR provides scientists in the lab with the critical seed funding they need to make game-changing discoveries in cancer detection, treatments, prevention, and ultimately, a cure for all cancers. NFCR has distinguished itself in the cancer research sector by emphasizing “high-risk, high-impact” long-term and transformative pioneering research fields often overlooked by other major funding sources. With the support of more than 5.3 million individual donors over the last 50+ years, NFCR has provided more than $415 million in funding to cancer research, prevention, and public education. NFCR-supported research has led to some of the most significant life-saving discoveries that benefit patients today. For more information, visit NFCR.org.

Media Contacts:

Ella Ye, Scientific Programs & Communications Manager, eye@AIM-HIaccelerator.org

Jonathan Larsen, CMO of NFCR, jlarsen@nfcr.org