Azafaros, a metabolic disorder drug developer leveraging Leiden University and Amsterdam UMC inventions, has secured $28m in series A capital.
Azafaros, a Netherlands-based rare metabolic disorder treatment spinout of Leiden University and Amsterdam University Medical Center, today closed a €25m ($28m) series A round led by venture firm Forbion Capital Partners.
The round was filled out by life science-focused venture firms BioMedPartners and BioGeneration Ventures (BGV).
Founded in 2018, Azafaros has licensed a group of orally-administered small molecule compounds for the long-term treatment of rare metabolic disorders, where the metabolism’s ability to convert food into energy is disturbed.
The series A funding will support Azafaros’s development pipeline, including its lead asset AZ-3102 for lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs), a group of genetic conditions that currently have no cure.
LSDs derail cellular enzyme sacs known as lysosomes, preventing the body from digesting lipids and carbohydrates. Azafaros intends to counteract this by targeting the metabolism of malformed glycolipids, using an engineered derivative of sugar known as azasugar.
Carlo Incerti and Sander Slootweg, respective operating partner and managing partner at Forbion, have joined the board of directors alongside Edward van Wezel, managing partner at BGV, and Andreas Wallnöfer, general partner at BioMedPartners.
Azafaros’s drug portfolio was discovered by researchers at Leiden Institute of Chemistry operating under Hans Aerts, professor of medical biochemistry, and Stan van Boeckel, professor of industrial medicinal chemistry.
BGV is the spinout’s founding investor, having supplied an undisclosed amount of seed funding in mid-2018.