Consortium raises €3m

Lyon-based insurance company SHAM has led the €3m funding into a group of biopharmaceutical companies developing therapeutics for metabolic cancer and other diseases.

SHAM is a new investor in the biopharmaceutical group and was joined by existing investors, Octalfa SAS and CEMA. Alizé Pharma Group has raised €4.8m from these three investors since its launch in 2007.

Alizé Pharma will use the new funding to strengthen its drug development team and its development program. The group currently has two programs at the preclinical stage. The first program, AZP-01, will be used in the treatment of Type II diabetes. The second, Asparec® (AZP-02), has been developed to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

The funds raised will also allow Alizé Pharma to finalize the first drug candidate for AZP-01 and to file a clinical trial application (CTA) to undertake the clinical development of the ASPAREC product.

Head of investments at SHAM, Olivier Szymkowiak said: “The programs under development at Alizé Pharma aim at meeting important medical needs.The relevance of the business model set forth by Thierry Abribat and the quality of the team involved in this project were key factors in raising SHAM’s interest.”