Pneuma Partners, LLC

ONY, Inc. manufactures Infasurf (calfactant) a drug that is life saving for newborn babies with respiratory failure from lung surfactant deficiency. Recently ONY, Inc. and Nektar Therapeutic Systems developed and tested a new, inhaleable powder formulation, Infasurf PulmoSpheres. The small size of the newborn surfactant market ($60M/yr in the US) and the success of the current liquid formulation ruled out changing formulation for newborns. However, Infasurf PulmoSpheres are most active in small airways - the site in the lung where asthma and chronic obstructive lung disease strike.

Approximately 1 out of every 5 of the 7,000,000+ patients/year who go to emergency rooms (ER) unable to breathe adequately because of asthma or chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) are admitted to the hospital. The small air tubes that are narrowed and blocked in these patients require a lining film of lung surfactant for normal function. We postulate, but have not proven, that patients who today fail ER treatment and are hospitalized could inhale Infasurf PulmoSpheres in the ER, re-establish their lining film, improve their breathing and go home.

Pneuma Partners, LLP has been established to determine if Infasurf PulmoSpheres are effective in Asthma and COPD. A detailed, 2 year, $2,000,000 program has been developed which will provide sufficient, scientifically secure data so that a positive result will yield the partnership rights to a billion dollar/year drug (1+ million patients/yr @ >$1,000/dose). Infasurf PulmoSpheres revealed it was sub-optimal for newborns but has properties that predict success for adults, a parallel to Viagra, which failed as a heart medicine, but was exploited for another use.