Low blood sugar, called hypoglycemia, is a real fear for people with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Although there are rescue treatments for it, there are no preventive therapies. Zucara Therapeutics, however, may have an answer. It is developing a once-daily therapy that restores glucagon. Adding glucagon raises blood-sugar levels, preventing hypoglycemia and the symptoms that it brings. Breakthrough T1D provided funding to move Zucara beyond the “valley of death”—when discovery research is translated into a therapy or technology, but lacks the funding to make it real—and now Zucara has the backing of a large venture capital fund to move its therapy, called ZT-01, into clinical trials.
Hypoglycemia is an unintended consequence of insulin therapy, and happens when one takes too much insulin. It causes sweating, fatigue, irritability and, in severe cases, seizures and/or death. It is one of the most feared and acute complications of this disease.
The venture fund, named Perceptive Xontogeny Venture (PXV) Fund, will provide Zucara $21 million and actively support its phase I and II trials. Zucara is currently preparing to initiate a phase I clinical trial of ZT-01 in mid-2020. If these trials are successful, the drug will be much closer to approval, and to providing much-needed relief to the millions of people with T1D and their families who suffer from the fear and danger of having low blood sugar when they take insulin.
