Pittsburgh’s ALung raises $2.5 million for clinical trials

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania — ALung Technologies, which is developing a replacement for hospital ventilators, has raised $2.5 million to fund clinical trials in India and Germany.

The company is developing its Hemolung System, which delivers oxygen directly into the blood using a catheter into the jugular vein. Patients can receive oxygen as they would during intubation but they could still talk, eat and would not need to be sedated. The company says the process allows patients lungs to heal and cut the length of hospital stays. About 450,000 patients use ventilators annually, the company said.

The company later this year will start a five-patient human trial in India and a 20-patient trial in Germany. ALung had raised $1.8 million at the beginning of the year to complete research ahead of clinical trials at the same time it hired former Renal Solutions Chief Executive Peter DeComo as its CEO.