Lung Therapeutics clears $36m series C

Lung Therapeutics, a US-based developer of pulmonary drug treatments spun out of University of Texas Health Science Center (UT Health), closed a $36m series C round yesterday featuring venture capital firm Bios Partners.
The round also includes contributions from undisclosed new and existing institutional investors.
Founded in 2013, Lung Therapeutics is working on medications for lung complications with unmet medical needs. Its lead asset, LTI-01, targets loculated pleural effusions (LPE), a complication of pneumonia with no approved drug treatments that causes infected pockets of fluid to accumulate in the lungs.
Lung Therapeutics will use the capital to conduct a phase 2 study on LTI-01, as well as a phase 1 trial for another drug candidate, LTI-03, indicated for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic disease causing progressive scarring in the lungs with an 80% estimated five-year mortality rate.
LTI-03’s anti-scarring properties have been corroborated in multiple models of fibrosis, and its protective effect on lung cells has been demonstrated during pre-clinical testing. Meanwhile, a dose-escalated phase 1 study of LTI-01 in 14 LPE patients produced some therapeutic benefit and indicated it could be tolerated by the human body.
Lung Therapeutics last raised $14.3m of series B funding in 2017 in a Bios Partners-led round that involved University of Texas System’s strategic venture fund, UT Horizon Fund.
The spinout attracted $1m of equity from unnamed backers in 2016, adding to $2.6m in equity and other securities raised the previous year, according to regulatory filings.
Lung Therapeutics also issued $1.6m in equity and other instruments in 2014. UT Horizon Fund reportedly supplied seed capital at an undisclosed date, though this is possibly connected to the 2014 round.
The spinout’s founding research was led by Steven Idell, the Temple chair of pulmonary fibrosis at UT Health and dean of the centre’s School of Medical Biological Sciences.