London, UK, 27May2021 – Pulmocide Ltd., (“the Company”) a late-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel inhaled therapies for patients suffering from serious acute and chronic respiratory diseases, today announced it has raised $92 million in an oversubscribed Series C financing round. The funding round was led by Jeito Capital with participation from other new investors Adjuvant Capital and Asahi Kasei Pharma. Existing investors SV Health Investors, SR One, IP Group plc, F-Prime Capital, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc., and Longwood Fund also participated. With the closing of the transaction Sabine Dandiguian from Jeito and Kabeer Aziz from Adjuvant have joined the Pulmocide Board of Directors.
Proceeds from the financing will primarily be used to advance the Company’s lead asset PC945 through a global Phase III registration program in patients with invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) who have failed prior therapy. PC945 is a potent, novel triazole antifungal that has been specifically designed for use as an inhaled therapy. Its pharmaceutical properties allow it to accumulate when nebulized in lung airway epithelial cells and macrophages, effectively delivering large, sustained doses to the site of infection in the lung while minimizing systemic drug levels.
Under a compassionate use designation across several clinical centers in the United Kingdom, PC945 was found to be well tolerated and demonstrated remarkable clinical responses. In this program patients with a variety of different clinical profiles that had failed all other treatment options responded well when PC945 was added to their treatment regimen. Case study examples of these responses were recently published in the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation (https://www.jhltonline.org/article/S1053-2498(20)31762-9/fulltext). The PC945 registration program is expected to begin recruiting patients later this year.
“With the benefit of this oversubscribed financing, Pulmocide is now well-positioned to bring this important new potential therapy to patients who desperately need better options and outcomes,” stated Daniel Burgess, Chairman and CEO of Pulmocide, “Currently less than 50% of those with IPA respond well to first line standard of care for this life-threatening condition. Based on results to date in patients who have already failed multiple treatment options, we believe PC945 has the potential to significantly improve response rates while minimizing any additional toxicity burden and drug-drug interactions that are frequently seen with systemic approaches. This drug profile suggests that PC945 may be useful in both acute and chronic settings.”
“We strongly believe in the combination of Pulmocide’s first-in-class science, the robust commercialization strategy for PC945 and the experienced management team that hold a successful track record in this field,” said Sabine Dandiguian, Managing Partner at Jeito Capital. “Pulmocide has the opportunity to deliver a potentially transformative treatment for patients suffering from respiratory aspergillosis. We are proud to the lead investor in this round and for this to be Jeito’s fourth portfolio investment.”
About Jeito Capital
Jeito Capital is a global leading investment company with a patient benefit driven approach that finances and accelerates ground-breaking medical innovation. Jeito empowers and supports entrepreneurs through its expert, integrated, multi-talented team and through the investment of significant capital to ensure the growth of companies, building market leaders in their respective therapeutic areas with accelerated patients’ access in Europe & the United States. Jeito Capital is based in Paris with a presence in Europe and the United States. For more information, please visit www.jeito.life, or follow on Twitter @Jeito_life or LinkedIn.
About Adjuvant Capital
Headquartered in New York, with offices in San Francisco and Zurich, Adjuvant is a global life science investment fund built to accelerate the development of new technologies for the world's most pressing public health challenges. Backed by prominent healthcare and emerging market investors, Adjuvant draws upon its network of scientists, public health experts, biopharmaceutical industry veterans, and development finance professionals to identify new investment opportunities. Adjuvant invests in companies developing promising new vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and medical devices targeting high-burden infectious diseases, maternal and child health, antimicrobial resistance, and malnutrition, with a commitment to make these interventions accessible in low- and middle-income countries. For more information, visit www.adjuvantcapital.com.
About Asahi Kasei Pharma
Asahi Kasei Pharma operates pharmaceutical and diagnostic businesses in the Health Care Business Unit of the Asahi Kasei Group and has developed numerous innovative drugs in the field of orthopedics, acute care, neurology, and immunology, contributing to society by providing such products to patients who suffer from diseases. Asahi Kasei Pharma established its CVC in 2018 and focused on investing in innovative biopharmaceutical companies treating diseases with high unmet medical need, including rare conditions and participate and help develop breakthrough medical innovations and aims to create new long-term business opportunities. Asahi Kasei Pharma CVC office is based in the Boston area in the US, and Tokyo, Japan. For more information, please visit https://www.asahikasei-pharma.co.jp/en/
About Pulmonary Aspergillosis
The incidence of pulmonary fungal disease has increased substantially over the past two decades; Aspergillus species being the most common of these. Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis is associated with a high mortality and morbidity rate in immuno-compromised patients including those undergoing hematological stem cell or solid organ transplantation, (particularly lung transplants) and some patients in critical care, including those with COVID-19-associated pulmonary aspergillosis. Aspergillus infection also plays an important role in severe asthma and cystic fibrosis and has been correlated with poorer clinical outcome in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Chronic lung infections with Aspergillus can leave patients with extensive and permanent lung damage, requiring lifetime antifungal treatment.
About Pulmocide
Pulmocide Ltd (www.pulmocide.com) is a late-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapies for patients suffering from serious acute and chronic respiratory diseases. Pulmocide’s lead product is PC945, a novel antifungal specifically designed for inhaled use to maximise the amount of drug in the lung and spare systemic exposure. This is expected to provide for superior efficacy against respiratory aspergillosis while minimizing systemic toxicities. PC945 is expected to be useful in a variety of conditions where Aspergillus has been implicated.
For further information, please contact:
Pulmocide Ltd
Jennifer Cayer
Chief Business Officer
jennifer@pulmocide.com
Consilium Strategic Communications
Sukaina Virji, Lindsey Neville, Lucie Foster
pulmocide@consilium-comms.com
