Thursday, April 13, 2017
Respira Therapeutics, Inc., a privately held pharmaceutical company developing innovative inhaled therapies to treat pulmonary hypertension and other pulmonary diseases, has entered into a strategic collaboration with United Therapeutics Corporation for the development and exclusive license of Respira's inhaled drug-device product, RT234™, for pulmonary hypertension indications in North America.
Under the terms of the strategic collaboration, United Therapeutics will provide Respira with non-dilutive development funding to advance RT234 through FDA approval. In addition, United Therapeutics will be the lead investor in Respira's Series B preferred stock financing. Respira's current investors, Cottonwood Technology Fund and Sun Mountain Capital, are also participating. Additional terms of the strategic collaboration were not disclosed. Respira will continue to advance the development of its other pipeline programs and will retain full control of its R&D programs outside of pulmonary hypertension.
"Respira is very excited to be working with United Therapeutics, arguably the leading pulmonary hypertension pharmaceutical company in the world. We share a common commitment to develop disruptive therapeutic approaches that can translate into disease-altering medicines for patients with pulmonary hypertension and other diseases," said Bob Curtis, President and CEO of Respira. "This important investment and strategic collaboration will allow our company to capitalize on the innovative research pipeline we have developed. We share United Therapeutics' aims and values, and we could not be more pleased to have them as a collaborator in our efforts."
"We are very pleased to extend our leadership in pulmonary hypertension by collaborating with Respira on inhaled RT234," said Martine Rothblatt, Ph.D., United Therapeutics' Chairman and CEO. "We believe that Respira's novel technology will enable us to continue providing more oral and inhaled medicines to more pulmonary hypertension patients in the USA than any other company."
"As founding investor of Respira, it is gratifying to see the progress made by the Respira team." said David Blivin, Managing Partner of Cottonwood Technology Funds. "This is a great first step toward demonstrating the broad application of Respira's AOS™ dry powder inhaler technology."
