Denmark-based biopharmaceutical company Orphazyme closed its series A round of funding on the 7th of September, raising €14m ($19.2m). The round was funded by Novo Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of Denmark-based healthcare company Novo, and venture capital firms Aescap Ventures and Sunstone Capital. Novo A/S acts as the holding company for its parent corporation, the Novo Group.
Novo Seeds, which acts as an early entry unit for the Novo Group as a whole, provided the initial seed funding for Orphazyme, in March 2010, following a pre-seed grant it had provided the year before. The amount Novo invested was undisclosed, though Sunstone later added $4.1m of seed financing in February of this year.
Founded in 2009, Orphazyme develops treatments for a family of genetic disorders known as lysosomal storage disorders. It plans to use the capital to advance its lead programa into clinical development.
Kim Dueholm, Partner at Novo Ventures, said: “Novo A/S, through Novo Seeds, provided grant funding prior to becoming a shareholder and was a founding investor in Orphazyme. Novo Ventures is pleased to continue the funding provided by Novo A/S to Orphazyme.”
Dueholm added: “Novo A/S believed in Orphazyme from the beginning and we still find that Orphazyme has one the most promising approaches to finding a breakthrough treatment for several lysosomal storage diseases giving hope to patients suffering from these rare, but very serious disorders.”