Yardley’s OptiNose, a specialty pharmaceutical company built around an innovative nasal drug-delivery technology, is breathing easier with the infusion last month of $35 million in new capital to continue development of its treatment for serious chronic nasal inflammatory diseases (CNID).
The naval cavity, the company explains, “is a complex landscape, making it hard to deliver drugs to the right place.” The new treatment, called OPN-375, uses OptiNose's patented technology to deliver fluticasone, a topical steroid, deep into the nasal cavity.
According to Terrence Terifay, the company's chief commercial officer, the treatment is aimed at moderate-to-severe suffers of CNID, debilitated by conditions like chronic rhinosinusitis with or without nasal polyps, perennial rhinitis, severe allergic rhinitis, as well as other related diseases of the upper airways. It is a huge market, estimated at up to 15 percent of the population, making it even more prevalent than heart disease. (Seasonal sufferers – you know who you are – are not the target and remain better served by over-the-counter and traditional treatments.)
“We believe OPN-375 will be a transformational blockbuster product,” says CEO Peter Miller. “Chronic nasal inflammatory disease represents a serious and debilitating condition for a very large population that has been frustrated and underserved for many years by currently available treatment options.”
A late-phase clinical trial of OPN-375 is underway; once regulatory approval is obtained, OptiNose anticipates commercial launch in the second half of 2016.
OptiNose was founded in 2000. A migraine treatment using its delivery technology is awaiting approval. Other treatment areas in the development pipeline include pain, inflammation, autism and other disorders. The recent financing was led by existing investors, notably Avista Capital Partners. The company is also considering an IPO in the near future.
Source: Terrence Terifay, OptiNose
Writer: Elise Vider