UCD spin-out raises €32.5m to develop pulmonary disease drug

UCD spin-out Aer Therapeutics has raised $36 million (€32.5 million) to develop a drug for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The biopharmaceutical company, which is also associated with University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), develops novel inhaled treatments for muco-obstructive lung diseases.

The funding was raised in a Series A financing round and was received from a syndicate of premier life science industry investors including Canaan, OrbiMed, and Hatteras Venture Partners.

Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance the development of AER-01, the company’s novel inhaled small molecule mucolytic drug designed to liquefy mucus plugs in the lungs of patients with COPD.

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It is estimated approximately 5 million COPD patients in the United States have a mucus plug-high disease subtype. Conventional COPD treatments such as bronchodilators and supplemental oxygen do not treat the airway obstruction caused by mucus plugs.

Aer Therapeutics plans to initiate a first-in-human phase one clinical trial of the drug later this year.

Aer Therapeutics, headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, was co-founded by Prof John Fahy, UCSF, who is originally from Dublin, and Prof Stefan Oscarson, UCD School of Chemistry.

Prof Fahy’s laboratory at UCSF developed the drug with Prof Oscarson’s glycochemistry laboratory at UCD in collaboration with Prof Anne Marie Healy’s pharmaceutical technology laboratory at Trinity College Dublin.

Aer Therapeutics chief executive Jim Shaffer said: “We are excited to introduce Aer Therapeutics as a company dedicated to delivering a therapeutic solution to patients with COPD who have severe airway obstruction caused by mucus plugs.

“Our scientific founders led the pioneering research that uncovered mucus plugs as a key mechanism of disease in COPD, and their laboratories worked together to discover AER-01 as a novel mucolytic treatment.

“Aer will continue to leverage this expertise in the development of AER-01 and other therapeutic candidates for the treatment of muco-obstructive lung diseases.”