Amolyt Pharma completed an $80 million series B equity financing to advance its pipeline of therapeutic peptides for rare endocrine and related diseases.
Photo: Thierry Abribat, founder and chief executive officer of Amolyt Pharma.
Sectoral Asset Management and Andera Partners co-led the financing, with participation from ATEM Capital and all investors from the company’s July 2019 series A financing, including LSP, Novo Holdings (Novo Ventures), Kurma Partners, Mass General Brigham Ventures, Innobio 2 managed by Bpifrance, Orbimed, Pontifax, Eurazeo, Sham Innovation Santé/Turenne Capital, and Credit Agricole Creation.
Amolyt plans to use the proceeds from the financing to advance its pipeline of potential therapeutics for rare endocrine and related diseases, including clinical development of AZP-3601 for hypoparathyroidism, preclinical development of AZP-3813 for acromegaly and ongoing research related to AZP-3404.
“This financing will give us the opportunity to further pursue our mission of building a leading rare endocrine and related disease company, and we will continue to work to introduce new and potentially life-changing therapeutics to patients globally,” said Thierry Abribat, founder and chief executive officer of Amolyt Pharma.
The series B financing follows several recent positive pipeline developments for Amolyt, including completion of the multiple ascending dose part of its phase 1 trial of AZP-3601, a parathyroid hormone analog, for the potential treatment of hypoparathyroidism. Amolyt will present the results at the 2021 meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research on October 1.
Hypoparathyroidism is a rare endocrine disorder characterized by a deficiency in parathyroid hormone (PTH) that results in dysregulation of calcium and phosphorus, two essential minerals in the body. It affects about 80,000 people in the United States and about 110,000 people in Europe. Only 25 percent of hypoparathyroidism cases are due to genetic conditions or autoimmune disorders, with most cases resulting from thyroid surgery, especially due to cancer.
These patients have a hard time regulating their blood calcium. Calcium is very important for health and if not treated, patients can die. Most of these patients are treated with calcium and vitamin D supplementation. But hypoparathyroidism is also associated with cognitive and neurological symptoms and affects quality of life, and over the long term, it can be toxic to the kidneys. AZP-3601 is specifically designed to restore PTH in patients suffering from hypoparathyroidism.
Amolyt also said that it had exercised its option to globally license a portfolio of macrocyclic peptide growth hormone receptor antagonists (GHRAs) under the terms of the research collaboration agreement with Peptidream announced in December 2020. The identified, optimized drug candidate, AZP-3813, is being developed as a potential treatment for acromegaly to be used in combination with somatostatin analogues (SSAs) for patients who do not adequately respond to SSAs alone.
In May 2021, the company presented positive data from the single ascending dose (SAD) part of its Phase 1 trial of AZP-3601 for the potential treatment of hypoparathyroidism at the 23rd European Congress of Endocrinology (ECE). Data showed that AZP-3601 induced a long-acting serum calcium response following a single administration in healthy volunteers.
Author: Rare Daily Staff
Stay Connected
Sign up for updates straight to your inbox.