Proceeds will be used to grow company’s team in Lyon and Boston, to advance its current programs in hypoparathyroidism and severe insulin resistance into clinical development, and to further strengthen its product portfolio in rare endocrine and metabolic diseases
Proceeds will be used to grow company’s team in Lyon and Boston, to advance its current programs in hypoparathyroidism and severe insulin resistance into clinical development, and to further strengthen its product portfolio in rare endocrine and metabolic diseases
Lyon, France, July 31, 2019 - Alizé Pharma 3, a company specialized in developing therapeutic peptides for rare endocrine and metabolic diseases, today announces that it has completed a €67 million Series A financing round. The oversubscribed Series A was led by LSP, and included Novo Ventures, Kurma Partners, Orbimed, Pontifax, Partners Innovation Fund and Innobio 2 (managed by Bpifrance). Existing shareholders, Sham Innovation Santé/Turenne Capital, Crédit Agricole Création and TAB Consulting also participated in the financing.
The new capital will be used primarily to advance the company’s product portfolio in rare endocrine and metabolic diseases, and to further strengthen it with selective acquisitions. Currently, the portfolio is comprised of two preclinical programs expected to reach clinical stage in 2020:
- AZP-3601 is a parathyroid hormone (PTH) analog, uniquely designed for the treatment of hypoparathyroidism, that was licensed from the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The unique pharmacological profile of AZP-3601, and its specific actions on calcium metabolism, make it a potential best-in-class therapy for this indication associated with high unmet clinical need.
- AZP-3404 is a small peptide that leverages the biology of insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-2 (IGFBP2) to treat syndromes of severe insulin resistance, a collection of ultra-rare diseases with significant morbidity and mortality. AZP-3404 was designed and optimized based on original research licensed from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Maine.
Alizé Pharma 3 will expand its team in Lyon, France, and will open a subsidiary in Boston, Massachusetts, in order to implement global drug development capabilities.
“We are very pleased to receive support and financing from this group of high-quality, international investors who share our ambition to build a leading rare disease company specialized in endocrinology and metabolism,” said Thierry Abribat, founder and CEO of Alizé Pharma 3. “We look forward to working with them to accelerate the structuring of the company and to advance our current product portfolio to ultimately provide new effective therapeutic approaches for rare endocrine and metabolic diseases with high unmet medical needs.”
Felice Verduyn-Van Weegen, investment manager at LSP, commented: ”We were very impressed by the quality of the team and we believe that they are very well positioned to bring these two exciting programs forward. Both programs are based on deep scientific knowledge and target a patient population where there is significant unmet need. On top of that, we believe that this €67 million Series A financing will enable Alizé Pharma 3 to live up to its full potential to become a fully-fledged biotech company with several interesting assets in the endocrine space. This is an ambitious team, resulting in an ambitious company.”
Jørgen Søberg Petersen, venture partner at Novo Ventures, said: “We are excited to launch another high-quality, innovative rare disease company. Both programs are anchored in strong science and hold the potential to transform life for patients with these rare endocrine disorders. Moreover, with an experienced management team, presence in Europe and the US, and support from a strong international syndicate of investors, Alizé Pharma 3 certainly has the key ingredients to deliver on its mission.”
Thierry Laugel, managing partner at Kurma Partners, commented: “We were impressed with the track record of the team in identifying innovative peptide drug candidates, and in building sound development plans to deliver these novel therapies to patients. We look forward to seeing these efforts yield improved treatments for diseases with significant unmet medical need”.
4Reliance advised Alize Pharma 3 on this Series A funding.
About Alizé Pharma 3
Alizé Pharma 3 develops innovative therapeutic peptides for rare endocrine and metabolic diseases. Its ambition is to become a leading company in rare diseases with operations in both Europe and the US to support the global development of products. Alizé Pharma 3 is building an innovative and balanced portfolio of products targeting significant unmet medical needs. Its first two assets are AZP-3601, a PTH analog for hypoparathyroidism, and AZP-3404, a peptide leveraging the biology of IGFBP2 for treating syndromes of severe insulin resistance.
www.alz-pharma.com/
About LSP
LSP (Life Sciences Partners) is an independent European investment firm, providing financing for private and public life science companies. LSP’s mission is to connect investors to inventors, focusing on unmet medical needs. Since the late 1980s, LSP’s management has invested in over 100 innovative enterprises, many of which have grown to become leaders of the global life sciences industry. With over €2.0 billion ($2.3 billion) of investment capital raised to date and offices in Amsterdam, Munich and Boston, LSP is one of Europe’s leading life sciences investors. LSP also invests in public companies through its Euronext-listed LSP Life Sciences Fund (Bloomberg: LSP NA). For more information, please visit: www.lspvc.com.
About Novo Holdings A/S
Novo Holdings A/S is a private limited liability company wholly owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. It is the holding company of the Novo Group, comprising Novo Nordisk A/S and Novozymes A/S, and is responsible for managing the Foundation’s assets. As part of its mandate, Novo Holdings provides seed and venture capital to development-stage companies, takes significant ownership positions in high growth and well-established companies within life science, and manages a broad portfolio of financial assets. It is the vision of Novo Holdings to be recognized as a world-leading life science investor with a focus on creating long-term value. Further information is available at www.novoholdings.dk
About Kurma Partners
Founded in 2009, Kurma Partners is a key European player in the financing of innovation in healthcare and biotechnology, from pre-seed to growth capital, notably through KurmaBiofund I through III and Kurma Diagnostics, as well as via strategic partnerships with prestigious European research and medical institutions. www.
About Orbimed
OrbiMed is a leading healthcare investment firm, with $14 billion in assets under management. OrbiMed invests globally across the healthcare industry, from start-ups to large multinational corporations, using a range of private equity funds, public equity funds, and royalty/credit funds. With offices in New York City, San Francisco, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mumbai and Herzliya, OrbiMed seeks to be a capital provider of choice, providing tailored financing solutions and global team support to help build world-class healthcare companies.
www.orbimed.com/
About Pontifax
Founded in 2004, Pontifax is a healthcare-dedicated venture capital firm with over $750 million under management. We seek transformative, cutting-edge life sciences technologies at all development stages. Visit our website for more information at www.pontifax.com
About Partners Innovation Fund
Partners Innovation Fund is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on commercializing technologies emerging from Partners HealthCare, a research and healthcare provider system founded by Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the two principal teaching hospitals of Harvard Medical School. The fund invests in leading-edge life science technologies with the goal of bringing discoveries, inventions and innovations from Partners’ pre-eminent research community to the market benefit of patients worldwide.
www.partnersinnovationfund.
About Bpifrance and Innobio 2
Bpifrance is the French national investment bank. It finances businesses at every stage of their development through loans, guarantees, equity investments and export insurances. Bpifrance also provides extra financial services (training, consultancy) to help entrepreneurs meet their challenges (innovation, export…). InnoBio 2 is an investment fund dedicated to life sciences, managed by Bpifrance, which is also one of the LPs alongside Sanofi, Boehringer Ingelheim, Takeda, Ipsen and Servier. InnoBio 2, with a first closing at €135 million, aims to invest in companies developing innovative products and services, close to or in early clinical development, with the objective of bringing them to clinical proof of concept. InnoBio 2 takes minority equity stake in companies and can lead or co-lead the investment rounds. For more information, please visit: www.bpifrance.fr and presse.bpifrance.fr. Follow us on Twitter: @Bpifrance @BpifrancePresse
About Sham Innovation Santé / Turenne Capital Group
Launched in July 2014, Sham Innovation Santé is an evergreen Venture Capital Fund controlled and owned by Sham, a French mutual insurance company specializing in insurance and risk management for professionals in the health, social and social-medical sectors. Advised and managed by Turenne Capital Group, Sham Innovation Santé invests in biotech and medtech companies that are developing breakthrough technologies in the medical and biotechnology fields. Turenne Capital Group is an independent firm owned by its management, with €1 billion in assets under management among which 250 M€ dedicated to Healthcare.
www.sham.fr / www.
About Crédit Agricole Création
CA Création is a private equity firm specializing in providing equity financing to innovative start-ups. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Crédit Agricole Center-Est, CA Création has been supporting projects within its territories (Rhône, Ain, Saône et Loire and Nord Isère-Drôme-Ardèche) for more than 15 years, usually in partnership with local private equity investors. Reflecting the mutualist values and model of Crédit Agricole, CA Création intends to reinforce its investments in innovative projects, particularly in the housing, health, environment and agri-food sectors.
