Azafaros compounds seed round

Azafaros, a Netherlands-based metabolic disorder therapy spinout from Leiden University and Amsterdam UMC’s Academic Medical Centre, closed a founding seed round on Monday backed by VC firm BioGeneration Ventures (BGV).

Azafaros has licensed assets from both institutions to develop oral azasugar-based compounds to combat lysosomal storage disorders (LSD), a group of rare metabolic diseases that currently have no effective cure.

The compounds target the metabolism of malformed glycolipids in the LSD patient to impede the disorder’s pathological impact. Azasugar is an engineered derivative of sugar where nitrogen has replaced the carbon atom.

Azafaros will commercialise research led by Hans Aerts, professor of medical biochemistry at Leiden’s Institute of Chemistry and chairman of the Department of Medical Biochemistry at AMC. Aerts’ team will assist Azafaros with research and development.

The company will be led by Olivier Morand, who joins as CEO after previously targeting rare metabolic diseases at biopharmaceutical developers Idorsia Pharmaceuticals and Actelion Pharmaceuticals.

Edward van Wezel, managing partner at BGV, has joined the Azafaros board of directors.

Van Wezel said: “We are very excited to be able to support the development of new treatment modalities for LSDs with a founding team that has strong scientific and business experience in a field with clear unmet medical needs.

“We strongly believe that these new compounds have the potential to offer better clinical outcome for patients in the future.”