DURHAM — A Durham-based pre-clinical stage pharmaceutical company has raised nearly $5 million in equity, according to a Thursday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Renovion raised the funds from eight investors, with around $2.05 million remaining to be sold.
The filing indicated funds would be used towards “none other than payments of salary in the ordinary course of business to certain of the parties.”
Renovion aims to create the first-ever drug approved for patients who have received a bilateral lung transplant. It also wants to help patients in other areas such as cystic fibrosis, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Its main drug, Arina-1 is currently being developed for use in patients with primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) and alpha-1 anti-trypsin deficiency (A1AD) as a twice daily, chronic therapy to improve mucus clearance and quality of life. Renovion plans to initiate a proof-of-concept studies in both indications in 2020.
Neither PCD nor A1AD have any FDA-approved therapies for pulmonary complications; all therapies used are done so off-label.
Renovion was founded in 2015 and has research and development efforts based at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Its CEO Daniel Copeland was the founder and president of Emerge Life Sciences, a consulting company focused on emerging technologies in the life sciences field. Copeland also earned his M.B.A. from UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School in 1998.
