Liquidia articulates new spin-out

Liquidia Technologies, a spin-out of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has itself spun out a new company, Lq3 Pharmaceuticals. It is the second pharmaceutical company to come out of Liqudia.

Lq3 has launched with a series A round worth $10m, led by Canaan Partners, a Californian venture capital firm with a focus on healthcare and technology. Canaan already invested in eye disease expert Envisia Therapeutics, Liquidia’s first spin-out.

Lq3 will utilise Liquidia’s particle replication in non-wetting templates (Print) technology. The biotech platform uses techniques from the semiconductor industry and is able to squeeze materials into microscopic moulds. The technology can create particles of virtually any shape, size or chemical composition. Lq3 will use Print specifically to develop novel therapeutics for oral health conditions.

Liquidia’s most historic support to date came from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which deemed the platform so important it was the foundation’s first equity investment.

Neal Fowler, CEO of Envisia and Liquidia, said: “We continue to be excited by the progress we are making across multiple programmes using Print technology and Lq3 is a direct result of these advancements. The formation of Lq3 creates an opportunity to independently focus the use of this technology on the development of innovative solutions in another growing market.”