Avalyn Pharma (formerly Genoa Pharmaceuticals) announced that it has raised $35.5 million in a Series B financing round led by Norwest Venture Partners. The proceeds will fund a Phase 2/3 trial Avalyn’s AP01 nebulized pirfenidone for the treatment of chronic lung allograft dysfunction in lung transplant patients.
AP01 is also in development for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), and the company said that it has just completed enrollment in another clinical study for that indication. Avalyn said that funds from the financing round will also go toward a Phase 1 study of AP02 aerosolized nintedanib.
Avalyn CEO A. Bruce Montgomery commented, “Reformulating systemic drugs for targeted inhaled lung delivery has successfully improved the efficacy and decreased systemic adverse effects of corticosteroids and bronchodilators in both asthma and COPD, and of antibiotics in cystic fibrosis. Despite the 2014 approval of two oral antifibrotic therapies, IPF and other fibrotic lung diseases remain fatal diseases with substantial unmet needs. We hope to accomplish improved tolerability and efficacy with both aerosolized pirfenidone and nintedanib. We are pleased by the safety profile we have seen to date with aerosolized pirfenidone in nearly 100 patients.”
Read the Avalyn Pharma press release.
