Zambon Pharma Acquires Breath Therapeutics for €500 Million to Advance Respiratory Disease Therapies

On July 26, 2019, VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) learned from foreign media reports that the Italian multinational Zambon Pharma announced the acquisition of medical device and pharmaceutical company Breath Therapeutics (Breath) for €500 million. The move aims to advance its drug research and development in rare diseases and respiratory conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease and cystic fibrosis.

It is reported that Breath completed a €43.5 million Series A financing round in 2017, led by Sofinnova and Gimv.

Headquartered in Bavaria, Germany, Breath is a medical device and pharmaceutical company. The company specializes in developing respiration-driven drug delivery systems to help treat various pulmonary diseases. By combining novel drugs with advanced inhalation delivery technologies, Breath rapidly delivers high-concentration medications to the target sites in patients, addressing the treatment needs of rare respiratory disorders. This delivery method concentrates the drug in the lungs and maximizes the retention of its effective dose, thereby enhancing therapeutic efficacy and safety.

Breath is researching treatment options for bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS). BOS is a major postoperative complication of lung transplantation, with symptoms primarily including obliterative bronchiolitis and airway obstruction. Breath’s R&D team is dedicated to designing novel drug carriers and developing high-performance specialized nebulizers to improve the efficacy of inhaled medication therapy for patients.

Breath’s lead drug candidate, L-CsA-i, is a ciclosporin A analog primarily used to prevent rejection in liver, kidney, and heart transplantation. This immunosuppressive agent is currently undergoing Phase III clinical trials to evaluate its efficacy and safety in treating bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS). As there are currently no effective therapies for BOS, L-CsA-i has the potential to become a targeted treatment for this post-transplant complication.

Breath has also launched the BOSTON initiative for BOS, which aims to employ lyophilized unilamellar liposomes as drug carriers to encapsulate insoluble cyclosporine A within the phospholipid bilayer. In combination with the eFlow nebulizer developed by the medical device company PARI Pharma, this approach delivers the medication to the lungs for therapeutic purposes.

Roberto Tascione, CEO of Zambon, stated, “BOS can lead to rapid respiratory failure in patients. We hope to accelerate the development of effective treatments for BOS through our collaboration with Breath.”

Founded in 1906 and headquartered in Milan, Italy, Zambon is a global leader in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. The company primarily focuses on developing medications for serious conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and cystic fibrosis. With nearly 3,000 employees, Zambon operates in 84 countries worldwide. The group’s subsidiaries include the pharmaceutical R&D company Zambon Pharma, the active pharmaceutical ingredient developer Zach, the healthcare venture capital firm Zcube Research Venture, and the charitable foundation Fondazione Zoé. It also operates the OpenZone science park.

Zambon’s respiratory disease treatment drug has recently received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The drug is primarily administered via inhalation using a powder nebulizer to treat pulmonary diseases associated with non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection.

Roberto Tascione stated that this acquisition represents the largest investment transaction in Zambon’s history. The company expects to complete the clinical trials for L-CsA-i in 2021 and submit marketing applications to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMEA).

Breath Therapeutics management stated, “With Zambon Pharma’s support, we are well-positioned to further develop and market novel drug delivery systems and scale up our operations.”

(Compiled by Xu Xiaoxue)