Imperial Innovations Group has announced that it is contributing £4.25 million towards a total of £17 million ($27.5 million) in funding for a new inhaled drug discovery and development company called Pulmocide. Other investors in the consortium include SV Life Sciences, Fidelity Biosciences, and Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation.
The new London-based company will focus on “inhaled medicines for the treatment of serious viral and fungal infections of the respiratory tract.” In 2006, Pulmocide CEO Garth Rapeport and Chief Science Officer Pete Strong co-founded inhaled drug development company, RespiVert, which was acquired by J&J subsidiary Centocor (now Janssen Biotech) in 2010.
Rapeport commented, “The Pulmocide team has an extensive track record in the discovery of potent long acting medicines for delivery to the lung via the inhaled route of administration. We are gratified to have the support of a leading investor consortium in our efforts to discover highly effective new treatments for life threatening respiratory tract infections”
Read the Imperial Innovations press release.
