Danish biotech company Orphazyme raised a €20 million ($24 million US) B round to pay for its work on rare lysosomal storage disorders as it moves toward Phase II trials. Investors included Novo Nordisk’s venture arm.
Orphazyme’s lead candidate, Orph002, is a treatment for Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC), a rare disorder in which cholesterol builds up in patients’ cells and creates neurological problems that often lead to death. The drug is “a small-molecule booster of the body’s heat shock proteins, designed to correct the cellular dysfunction at the heart of NPC,” according to an article.
The latest funding round, led by new investor Kurma Partners, will pay for Orphazyme’s planned Phase II trial for Orph002, which the company is now readying. Idinvest Partners also is part of the financing, as are repeat backers Novo A/S, Sunstone Capital and Aescap Venture.
