Alizé Pharma 3 Aims to Become Leader in Treatment of Rare Endocrine and Metabolic Disease

Alizé Pharma 3, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies for rare diseases, including hypoparathyroidism, is making efforts to become a leading company focusing on rare endocrine and metabolic diseases.

The company will establish operations in Europe and North America to achieve faster global regulatory approvals for leading candidate therapies, such as AZP-3601 for hypoparathyroidism.

“It is Alizé Pharma 3’s intention to build a biopharmaceutical company with operations in both Europe and North America. This will enable us to support the global development of our portfolio products through to regulatory approval,” Thierry Abribat, founder and CEO of Alizé Pharma 3, said in a press release.

Hypoparathyroidism is a rare endocrine disorder characterized by insufficient levels of parathyroid hormone (PTH), resulting in low calcium and elevated phosphate levels in the blood.

Treatment with calcium and vitamin D supplements is used to normalize calcium levels in patients’ blood, but its efficacy is low, which increases the risk for kidney disease because of the extra work required to excrete high calcium levels in the urine.

Replacement therapy with human PTH is also used to treat hypoparathyroidism, but this approach is still associated with low efficacy because of its short half-life in the blood and lack of specificity.

AZP-3601 is Alizé Pharma 3’s analog of PTH designed as a replacement therapy for hypoparathyroidism. AZP-3601 was originally developed by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

The therapy was shown to interact strongly with the PTH receptor, promoting its prolonged activation and helping regulate calcium levels, as well as vitamin D and ions, in the blood.

Preclinical studies have shown that AZP-3601 is more effective and longer-acting than natural PTH in increasing and maintaining circulating calcium levels without increasing urinary calcium excretion.

Alizé Pharma 3’s expects that AZP-3601 will work as a safer and more effective therapy for hypoparathyroidism.

“As of today, our portfolio includes two promising programs with extensive preclinical proof of concept data originating from prestigious U.S. academic groups and we will continue to evaluate additional programs to complete our portfolio,” said Michael Culler, PhD, chief scientific officer of Alizé Pharma 3.

“There are still substantial unmet medical needs in rare endocrine and metabolic diseases,” said AJ van der Lely, head of the division of endocrinology and professor of endocrinology at the Erasmus University MC in Rotterdam, Holland, and medical adviser for Alizé Pharma 3. “Alizé Pharma 3’s current portfolio of programs targets several significant problems with innovative but solid rationales for patients with hypoparathyroidism, severe insulin resistance and monogenic obesities.”