Nuvaira raises $79m to support COPD device

Respiratory device developer Nuvaira said today that it raised $79 million in a new equity financing round to support its Lung Denervation System.

The Lung Denervation System is intended to treat airway hyper-responsiveness, which the Minneapolis-based company said is a pathophysiologic underpinning of both chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma, through a procedure called Targeted Lung Denervation.

Nuvaira said that the Lung Denervation System has been shown to be safe and feasible in three clinical studies, the last of which was presented at the European Respiratory Society conference last September.

“The rigor of the Airflow-2 trial has set a high standard for the field. We are encouraged by the results of the Airflow-2 trial, and we see TLD potentially filling an unmet need for our COPD patients who continue to have exacerbations while on maximal guideline-based pharmacologic therapy,” trial investigator Dr. Frank Sciurba of Pittsburgh’s UPMC said in a prepared statement.

The round was led by U.S. Venture Partners and joined by newly invested Endeavour Vision, Qiming Venture Partners, Lightstone Ventures and the Richard King Mellon Foundation as well as existing investors Advanced Technology Ventures, Morgenthaler Ventures, Split Rock Partners, Versant Ventures ,Vertex Venture Holding and Windham Venture Partners.

Nuvaira said that it also added Lisa Rogan as its market dev senior VP.

“We are thrilled to have such a strong consortium of top-tier investors in this financing, as a clear vote of confidence in our work and the performance of our novel catheter-based system in our Phase 2b randomized, sham-controlled trial in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. These funds will be used to support the pivotal AIRFLOW-3 clinical trial for FDA approval, and to implement a targeted clinical development strategy in key European markets. We are extremely excited to have Lisa Rogan join our executive team at Nuvaira. She has a deep understanding and knowledge of the pulmonary field having spent the past decade in it, and she brings with her great business acumen and expertise in accessing new markets,” CEO Dr. Dennis Wahr said in a press release.

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