$14 million to fund artificial lung trials: ALung

firm raises $14 million to fund artificial lung trials


A South Side-based medical device company raised $14 million to fund the completion of clinical trials on its artificial lung device-- in use by two patients in Germany -- as a prelude to seeking approval in the United States, the company said Thursday.

ALung Technologies Inc. completed raising the $14 million in preferred stock this week, which should provide the company with financing through January 2012 so that it can complete its pilot trials, CEO Peter DeComo said. The company had raised $16.5 million in private money over the past decade.

Of the $14 million in new funding, $500,000 came from Birchmere Ventures, a venture capital firm that targets early-stage companies, also based on the South Side. The remainder came from 90 individual investors, some of whom are physicians, said Mel Pirchesky, president of Eagle Ventures Inc., a Highland Park-based firm that raised the money. Pirchesky, whose company charged a percentage of the amount of money it raised, said he is among the investors in ALung.

ALung's Hemolung is designed to replace or supplement traditional ventilators used in hospitals. The artificial lung removes carbon dioxide from the blood and replaces it with oxygen, which is pumped into the patient's blood as it circulates through tubes connected to a vein.
DeComo was optimistic that successful use of the artificial lung on the patients in Germany will lead to an approval for use in Europe by mid-2011. The data gathered from the pilot project can be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration, DeComo said. ALung intends to apply to the FDA for permission to conduct a "pivotal trial" test on patients in the United States, he noted.

Approval for use in the European Union will permit ALung to generate revenue while conducting U.S. trials, DeComo said.
"There's no way we can't get through the FDA trials" and win approval to use the artificial lung in the United States, DeComo said.

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By Joe Napsha, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Oct.