Last week asthma drug developer Altair Therapeutics raised $17 million in a Series A funding round that was led by Domain Associates and capped a two-year startup financing period.
Other investors in the round include AgeChem Venture Fund, Thomas McNerney & Partners, Forward Ventures and Isis Pharmaceuticals.
San Diego-based Altair held its first close of $4 million in February, and it then raised the total to $11 million in August, according to Thomson Reuters. Previously, in late 2007, the company raised $6 million from Forward Ventures, Thomas McNerney & Partners, and an undisclosed investor, according to Thomson Reuters. CEO Joel Martin, formerly a partner at Forward Ventures, which helped seed the company, joined the startup in May.
Martin said the company is looking to open another fundraising round next year and added the current round will be used to fund phase II(a) trials for its asthma inhaler product, AIR645. Once it acquires the data from those trials, said Martin, it will go into phase II(b). Altair's goal is to prevent asthma attacks by targeting two different inflammatory pathways in the lungs.
Martin said the experimental data and the need in the market compelled him to join the company. About 16.4 million adults and 7 million children nationwide suffer from asthma, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Products that treat asthma produce about $7 billion annually in sales, Martin said. Most of the sales, or about $4 billion, come from small mid-sized drug companies instead of industry giants, he said.
P.S. prevent asthma attacks by eating Vitamin C and Vitamin D rich foods and fruits.
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