ALung planning European launch of artificial lung system

ALung Technologies is targeting a $10 million series B round of investment for the European launch of its respiratory assistance system that removes carbon dioxide from a patient’s blood while directly infusing the blood with oxygen.

The company is already most of the way there, having just closed on $6.6 million and having received commitments for $9 million, CEO Peter DeComo said.

Pittsburgh-based ALung recently completed a German pilot clinical trial of around 20 patients. The company has filed for the CE Mark, which would give it the right to begin European commercialization, and expects to launch its HemoLung product in the first or second quarter. ALung is planning a “slow, controlled launch,” DeComo said.

The series B round has been funded thus far primarily by existing investors, including Birchmere Ventures, a Pittsburgh-based early stage venture capital firm. “The series B is indicative of the current investors’ confidence in the company and its progress,” DeComo said.

The HemoLung delivers oxygen directly into the blood using a catheter into the femoral or jugular vein, similar to kidney dialysis. The technology is intended for patients with acute respiratory failure and could allow such patients to avoid having to breathe through a tube or ventilator.

In October 2010, ALung closed a $14 million series A round, led by Pittsburgh’s Eagle Ventures.



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Update on Work on Artificial Lung Prototypes

Update on Work on Artificial Lung Prototypes


The McGowan Institute scientists are developing improved artificial lungs. Brack G. Hattler, MD, PhD (bottom), Professor of Surgery and Executive Director of the Medical Devices Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh, and William J. Federspiel, PhD (top), the University’s William Kepler Whiteford Professor of Chemical Engineering, Surgery and Bioengineering, and Director of the Medical Devices Laboratory, currently are conducting laboratory research that is tackling fundamental problems associated with making artificial lungs more efficient and biocompatible, and is developing next generation artificial lungs or blood oxygenators.

The purpose of an artificial lung is to help lung-failure patients survive the tenuous bridge of time between loss of respiratory function and a lung transplant, and to allow a patient whose lungs have undergone trauma, like severe smoke inhalation, to rest and heal. Artificial lungs are small and portable, and are designed to allow patients to remain mobile and therefore stronger for surgery. In healthy lungs, blood vessels absorb oxygen from the blood that's pumped in from the heart, then release carbon dioxide through exhalation. An artificial lung basically imitates the way a normal lung works.



Researchers in Pittsburgh who are developing and testing prototypes believe artificial lung clinical trials in humans, similar to studies already underway in Canada and Europe, may begin as early as this spring.



"We are doing extensive work with the Department of Defense," says Dr. Hattler. "They are very interested in support of soldiers in combat." He expects human trials this spring for his group's external device, the Hemolung.

The Hemolung consists of a small cylindrical oxygenator that is approximately 4 inches in diameter. A cylindrical bundle of micro-porous hollow fiber membranes woven into a mat is wrapped in multiple layers around a central core. Oxygen flows through the hollow fiber membranes, while blood is circulated though the hollow fiber bundle. The core is spun at approximately 1000 RPM, dramatically enhancing gas exchange, as well as serving as a pump to move the blood through the external circuit. The 6-month clinical trial could begin early in 2008 on the Hemolung. Hope is that the FDA will approve it quickly, for patient use by the end of 2008.


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