Poised for pivotal lung transplant trial in U.S.
Renovion, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company on a mission to transform the treatment of chronic inflammatory lung diseases, announced completion of a Series A financing round of $8.1 million to fund the development and clinical programs associated with their lead therapeutic candidate ARINA-1. ARINA-1 is a nebulized therapy developed to improve mucus clearance and decrease inflammation in patients diagnosed with chronic lung disease. The financing round was led by White Rock Capital Management, Dallas, TX.
“Patient and laboratory studies have shown that ARINA-1 significantly improves mucus clearance while reducing inflammation. There are limited options available and we see a great opportunity to help these patients,” said Dan Copeland, Chief Executive Officer at Renovion. “This funding will be instrumental in progressing our clinical programs in patients suffering from chronic lung diseases, including patients with a lung transplant, cystic fibrosis (CF), and non-CF bronchiectasis.”
Renovion has been granted orphan status designation for lung transplant and CF. A Phase 2/3 pivotal trial in lung transplant is scheduled to start in early 2021, and this will be followed by clinical programs in CF and non-CF bronchiectasis. In all these diseases, the cycle of mucus and inflammation leads to high hospitalization and mortality rates. Patient data supports a strong safety profile, as well as significant mucus clearance after initiating ARINA-1. ARINA-1 is delivered via an investigational eFlow® nebulizer (PARI Pharma GmbH) developed to deliver the optimal dose to the airway.
“My lab has worked extensively with ARINA-1 to determine how the drug effects CF mucus and mucus transport. CF mucus is severely problematic, and ARINA-1 strongly augments mucus transport in CF cells that are defective for this trait,” states Steven Rowe, MD, MSPH and Director of the Gregory Fleming James Cystic Fibrosis Research Center at the University of Alabama Birmingham. “Based on our studies demonstrating that ARINA-1 is substantially more effective than hypertonic saline for mucus clearance in CF cells, the potential for ARINA-1 to help people with CF improve clinically is promising. Importantly, CF mucus is emblematic of difficult to treat mucus in other airway diseases. As ARINA-1’s mechanism is multi-faceted, it also has the potential to help in other diseases.”
As a part of this financing, Renovion adds two experienced board members to the Board of Directors. Tom Barton, Managing Partner of White Rock Capital, and Jon Civitarese, Managing Director of SVB Leerink. Tom and Jon join Derek Winstanly, MBChB, who serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Dan Copeland, CEO of Renovion. This group brings decades of experience in working with successful biotech companies to grow and commercialize therapies.
About Renovion
Renovion is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company with a nebulized therapy that restores mucus clearance and reduces inflammation in the lungs. The company is focused on developing ARINA-1 for orphan chronic inflammatory lung diseases.
About PARI Pharma and the eFlow® Technology
ARINA-1 is delivered via an optimized eFlow Technology nebulizer developed by PARI Pharma GmbH. PARI develops, commercializes and manufactures optimized eFlow Technology nebulizers in cooperation with partners from the pharmaceutical industry and contributes to advanced drug-device combination products that bring relief for patients with severe lung diseases. eFlow Technology is an aerosol delivery platform that enables efficient aerosolization of liquid medications via a vibrating, perforated membrane. PARI Pharma is located near Munich, Germany with a major presence in the United States. For more information please visit www.pari.com/eFlow-partnering.