Rare Daily Staff
Azafaros, a Netherlands-based biotech developing therapies for rare metabolic disorders, said it completed a seed financing round with BioGeneration Ventures as the founding investor.
The company did not disclose the amount of the seed funding.
Rare metabolic disorders, such as lysosomal storage disorders, represent a broad class of severe and sometimes life-threatening inherited diseases, presenting significant unmet medical needs, with few approved therapies.
Azafaros will concentrate on new treatments for patients suffering from lysosomal storage disorders and related diseases with proprietary small molecule compounds that interfere with the metabolism of glycolipids, which is disturbed in these patients. Azafaros holds an exclusive license to a library of novel compounds and patents that were discovered at Leiden University and Amsterdam UMC.
With the financing, the company named Olivier Morand as CEO of Azafaros and a member of the board of directors.
Morand, a senior leader in pharma strategic development for early- and late-phase products, brings many years of experience and know-how in rare metabolic disorders and orphan drugs. He previously worked at Idorsia Pharmaceuticals, and before that at Actelion Pharmaceuticals and Hoffmann-La Roche.
Prior to working in industry, Morand held various roles in academic institutions including INSERM Paris, the University of Wisconsin Madison, the Hadassah Medical School Jerusalem and the Mount Sinai Medical School New York.
July 23, 2018
Photo: Olivier Morand CEO of Azafaros
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