US-based pulmonary disease drug developer Avalyn Pharma closed a $35.5m series B round on Monday featuring pharmaceutical firm Novo and Pivotal BioVenture Partners, a fund co-founded by conglomerate Nan Fung.
Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) led the round, which included fellow venture capital firm RiverVest Venture Partners as well as TPG Biotech, a subsidiary of private equity group TPG, and F-Prime Capital, on behalf of investment and financial services group Fidelity.
Formerly known as Genoa Pharmaceuticals, Avalyn is developing therapeutics to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a condition associated with the scarring of the lungs.
Although two drugs, pirfenidone and nintedanib, have received regulatory approval for the treatment of IPF, Avalyn stated that their ‘significant’ adverse effects mean they can only be administered in relatively small doses. Its drugs will be similar but will be able to be inhaled, delivering effective doses without those effects.
Avalyn’s chief executive, A. Bruce Montgomery, said: “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 aerosolised pirfenidone and nintedanib. We are pleased by the safety profile we have seen to date with aerosolised pirfenidone in nearly 100 patients.”
NVP partner Robert Mittendorff has taken a board seat at Avalyn in conjunction with the round, as has Heather Preston, a managing partner at Pivotal BioVenture Partners.
F-Prime Capital and banking and asset management group Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners co-led the company’s $62m series A round, which also featured Novo, RiverVest Venture Partners and TPG Biotech, in 2017.
