According to ENA Respiratory, the company has received AU$2.98 million in funding from the new Australian “national virtual incubator” Biointelect Venturer, with the funds going to support a Phase 1b study of ENA’s INNA-051 dry powder antiviral nasal spray in patients with asthma. Initiation of the ENA-A-04 trial is planned for early 2027, the company said.
The Biointelect Venture funding comes in the new incubator’s first round of awards, which included a total of almost AU$10.5 million in grants to 6 companies. ENA has previously received funding for development of INNA-051 from the US Department of Defense and from the non-profit organization Flu Lab.
ENA notes that the Phase 2 POSITS trial of INNA-051, which was initiated earlier this year, is currently underway. The company says that the first part of POSITS was completed in May, and the second part is scheduled to run during the upcoming respiratory virus season in North America.
ENA Respiratory CEO Christophe Demaison commented, “We are proud to have received this grant from Biointelect Venturer. It will enable us to expand our clinical program in a high risk patient population. Patients with asthma are at significant risk of complications from respiratory infections and this study will inform future development in this group and other at-risk populations such as those with other chronic respiratory conditions like COPD.”
Biointelect Venturer General Manager Danielle Shand said, “This inaugural cohort of funding recipients, including ENA Respiratory, reflects exactly what Biointelect Venturer was established to do: accelerate high quality Australian infectious disease innovations that address significant local and global health priorities and deliver investment-ready ventures. These companies can deliver substantial value through their discoveries but often face difficult early investment conditions and critical gaps between research and commercial readiness. By combining catalytic funding with hands-on commercialization support, we can help promising technologies close those gaps.”
Read the ENA Respiratory press release
