Airway Therapeutics raises $500K for premature infants’ lung drug

Airway Therapeutics has received commitments for $500,000 of what’s anticipated to be a $1.2 million fundraise.

The startup, built on technology developed at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, is developing a drug that would improve lung function in premature infants. The $500,000 in funding was split between investors CincyTech, a state-backed venture development group, and Tomorrow Fund, which is operated by Cincinnati Children’s, according to a statement from CincyTech.

The funds will allow Airway to begin development efforts of its drug candidates. The company plans to meet with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to discuss a development pathway. Airway hopes within 15 months to file with the FDA an Investigational New Drug (IND) Application, which if approved, would allow the company to begin testing the drug in humans.

Airway’s initial focus will be on the prevention of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in conjunction with the prevention and treatment of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (nRDS) in very premature infants.

The conditions are caused by a lack of a slippery, protective substance called surfactant, which helps the lungs inflate with air and keeps the air sacs from collapsing.

Airway is developing a new protein surfactant that would be added to existing surfactant prior to treating very premature newborns.

Getting a drug to market won’t be cheap for the company, meaning it’ll have to partner with a bigger drug developer or raise a lot more capital on its own, with the first option the more likely route. The company estimates that it will cost about $25 million to take the new combination product for the prevention of BPD to market, according to the statement.

The new surfactant is based on the research of Dr. Jeffrey Whitsett, executive director of the Perinatal Institute at Cincinnati Children’s.

The company is based in BioStart, a Cincinnati bioscience incubator. BioStart is a previous investor in Airway.