As Texas strengthens its ties with Japan ahead of the 2026 Japan-Texas Economic Summit, Coya Therapeutics is positioning itself as one of the state’s most closely watched biopharma players. The company is developing therapies for neurodegenerative diseases and is now looking toward Japan as a key future market.
In an interview with GMI POST for The Japan Times, Arun Swaminathan, CEO of Coya Therapeutics, said the company is focused on conditions such as ALS, frontotemporal dementia (FTD), Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, with the goal of slowing or stopping disease progression.
“We are a company focused on neurodegenerative diseases,” Swaminathan said. “Our focus is how do we stop their progression.”
That mission is rooted in Coya’s work on regulatory T-cells, or T-regs, which help keep the immune system in balance. Swaminathan said the company believes restoring Treg function can help counter the neuroinflammation that drives many degenerative conditions.
“By restoring the balance, we can stop something called neuroinflammation, because we believe inflammation in the neurons is what drives the progression of these diseases,” he said.
A data-driven approach
Coya’s lead product candidate, COYA 302, is currently being studied in a Phase 2b ALS trial known as the ALSTARS study in the United States and Canada. Swaminathan said the company’s confidence is grounded in encouraging early data across multiple indications.
“It is data-driven. It is science-driven,” he said, noting that smaller studies in ALS and FTD showed the potential to significantly slow decline. For ALS patients in particular, that could mean preserving day-to-day function for longer in a disease where deterioration is usually swift.
Swaminathan said Coya’s broader ambition is both clinical and commercial: “We want to make these diseases manageable diseases where a patient can more or less lead a very normal life and lead a full life.”
Japan as a priority market
Japan is central to that vision. Coya retains commercialization rights for COYA 302 in Japan and is actively seeking a local partner to help bring the therapy to market.
“We do not believe that we can do it alone in Japan,” Swaminathan said. “Japan is a market where you need local expertise.”
He added that the company is looking for partners with a strong understanding of the Japanese regulatory pathway and market landscape. Japan’s importance is clear not only because of its advanced healthcare system, but also because of patient need.
“Japan is an extremely significant commercial market,” he said, adding that the country ranks among the top three globally in ALS patient numbers.
For Swaminathan, the message to Japan is straightforward: “Coya is committed to finding solutions for devastating diseases like ALS and FTD … and we are committed to finding a way to bring those products to the Japanese market as well.”
