Coya Therapeutics™ Announces the Appointment of Hideki Garren, M.D., Ph.D., and Dov Goldstein, M.D., to Its Board of Directors

HOUSTON, April 14, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Coya Therapeutics, Inc., (Coya™), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing first-in-class approaches utilizing autologous regulatory T cells (Tregs) and Treg-derived exosome therapeutics for neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases, today announced that it has appointed Hideki Garren, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer of Prothena and Dov Goldstein, M.D., Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer of Indapta, to the Company's Board of Directors, effective immediately. Coya's Board is now composed of five members.

"We are pleased to welcome these world-class leaders to our board; their expertise in research and development of neurological and autoimmune diseases, as well as in global business development will be invaluable to Coya's future growth," said Howard Berman, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Coya Therapeutics. "We look forward to working with Dr. Garren and Dr. Goldstein as we continue to advance novel therapeutics--delivering on our mission to improve outcomes and the standard of care for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and neurodegenerative diseases."

Dr. Garren has 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, spanning all aspects of novel drug development from discovery, to early-stage clinical trials, to late-stage clinical trials, to commercialization. He currently serves as the Chief Medical Officer for Prothena, a late-stage clinical company with expertise in protein dysregulation, focusing on rare peripheral amyloid and neurodegenerative diseases. From 2013 to 2020, he served as VP, Global Head of Neuroimmunology for F. Hoffmann-La Roche (Roche) & Genentech Inc., where he led the teams that conducted the Ocrevus® Phase III trials for multiple sclerosis and Enspryng™ Phase III trials for the rare disease neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder. Previously, Dr. Garren served as Executive Director, Translational Medicine Expert in neuroscience for Novartis Pharma.

In 2002, Dr. Garren co-founded Bayhill Therapeutics, centered on a novel therapeutic platform for treating autoimmune diseases that he co-discovered while at Stanford University, and served as Executive VP, Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Operating Officer. He served as adjunct clinical faculty in the Department of Neurology at Stanford University from 1997 to 2009. Dr. Garren earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the California Institute of Technology and his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of California Los Angeles.

Dr. Goldstein brings over 20 years of strategic financial and operational experience within the healthcare sector. He currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer of Indapta Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing a proprietary, off-the-shelf, allogeneic FcRy-deficient natural killer (G-NK) cell therapy to treat multiple types of cancer. Dr. Goldstein was previously Chief Executive Officer of RIGImmune. Prior to that he served as the Chief Financial Officer at Schrödinger, LLC from 2017 to 2018. Dr. Goldstein held various leadership roles at Aisling Capital, a private investment firm, from 2006 to 2017, serving as its Managing Partner from 2014 to 2017. Dr. Goldstein served as the Chief Financial Officer of Loxo Oncology, Inc. between 2014 and 2015. From 2000 to 2005, Dr. Goldstein served as Chief Financial Officer of Vicuron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., raising over $250 million in equity financings, facilitating company partnership transactions and participating in the M&A process when Vicuron was acquired by Pfizer, Inc. for $1.9 billion. Prior to joining Vicuron, he was Director of Venture Analysis at HealthCare Ventures.

Dr. Goldstein currently serves on the board of Directors of NeuBase Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NBSE) and Gain Therapeutics (NASDAQ:GANX). He previously served as a director for ADMA Biologics, Loxo Oncology, Esperion Therapeutics, Duranta Therapeutics, Cempra and a number of private companies. He received a Bachelor of Science in biological sciences from Stanford University, an MBA from Columbia Business School and an M.D. from Yale School of Medicine.

About Coya Therapeutics, Inc.

Headquartered in Houston, TX, Coya Therapeutics™ is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing first-in-class and best-in-class approaches utilizing adoptive regulatory T cells (Tregs) to target disease. The company's CTreg™ (Cryopreservation for Tregs) system is patent pending and the first in the industry to overcome prior limitations of Treg cell therapies, allowing for serial infusions from a single manufacturing round. Through our proprietary TAI™ (Tregs Against Inflammation™) and patent pending iscEXO™ (immunosuppressive cell Exosome) platforms, Coya is focused on the advancement of disease modifying approaches to address the significant unmet medical needs of patients with ALS, Frontotemporal Dementia, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and autoimmune diseases. For more information, please visit www.coyatherapeutics.com