Inozyme Pharma Raises $49 Million to Develop Therapies for Rare Diseases Affecting Soft Tissue and Bone

Inozyme Pharma, a drug developer focusing on rare diseases involving calcification of soft tissues and bone, completed a $49 million series A financing.
Longitude Capital led the round, which included participation from New Enterprise Associates, Novo Ventures, and Sanofi Ventures.

The company will use the proceeds from this financing to advance its lead enzyme replacement therapy for the treatment of Generalized Arterial Calcification of Infancy and Autosomal Recessive Hypophosphatemic Rickets Type 2 into the clinic. These disorders are characterized by mineral imbalances that lead to over calcification of soft tissues and under mineralization of bone. GACI is an ultra-rare genetic disease that causes calcification of arteries and the heart. ARHR2 is a rare skeletal disorder that can cause repeated fractures, rachitic skeletal deformities, and impaired growth and development.

“Our mission is to develop potentially disease-modifying therapies to help children who are affected with rare, but severe and debilitating disorders of metabolism,” said Axel Bolte, chief executive officer and co-founder of Inozyme Pharma. “These patients have very poor treatment options.”

The company has built and management team with deep rare disease experience. It includes COO Henric Bjarke, who served as vice president and therapeutic area head for the metabolic business unit at Alexion Pharmaceuticals; Chief Technical Operations Officer Steven Jungles, who held positions at Ultragenyx and BioMarin; Chief Medical Officer Erin Yuen, who also worked at Ultragenyx; VP of Regulatory and Government Affairs Ruhi Ahmed who held positions at Ultragenyx and BioMarin; and VP of Finance Stephen Basso, who previously worked at Alexion.

With the financing, Reinaldo Diaz of Longitude Capital, Ed Mathers of New Enterprise Associates, and Martin Edwards of Novo Holdings joined the board, which also includes Bolte and Inozyme chairman a co-founder Joseph Schlessinger of Yale University, which licensed critical technology to the company.

November 15, 2017

Author: Rare Daily Staff