An Albuquerque-based biotechnology startup recently closed the first portion of a $3 million raise, money the company hopes will help carry its flagship pulmonary technology into the lab.
Nob Hill Therapeutics, which is based out of The Bioscience Center near Uptown Albuquerque, announced its $3 million Series A raise on Aug. 6. Noel Greenberger, the 2022 Startup to Watch's CEO, told New Mexico Inno money from the new investment round will be used to prepare the company's flagship medical device for clinical trials.
That device, called the "DryNeb," is a type of dry powder nebulizer. It's designed to deliver drugs to a person's lungs more efficiently than other dry powder inhalers on the market.
Acting as a platform technology, the device can be used with different pulmonary-related therapeutic medicines. Alongside developing DryNeb, the startup is also working on a pair of such therapeutics it can use as a sort of "proof of concept" for its drug delivery device, Greenberger explained.
DryNeb, specifically, is licensed out of UNM Rainforest Innovations, the tech transfer arm of the University of New Mexico. Nob Hill Therapeutics was originally created by VIC Technology Venture Development, a firm based in Fayetteville, Arkansas, that helps commercialize novel technologies out of research institutions in the U.S., in 2018.
Since then, the startup's leadership team has evolved, with Greenberger taking over as CEO in September 2022. Paul Atkins, Ph.D., is Nob Hill Therapeutics' executive chairman, and it currently has four full- or part-time employees, including Greenberger, and a three-person strategic advisory board.
Hugh Smyth, the startup's chief technology officer, is named on a 2016 patent for a dry powder inhaler technology.
To get its DryNeb device ready for commercialization, Greenberger said the startup wants to partner with pharmaceutical companies that require such an inhalation technology for the medicines they're developing. Nob Hill Therapeutics would then clinically test its device jointly with selected pharmaceutical partners.
Greenberger said there are "quite a few" pharma companies the Albuquerque startup is currently in discussions with, although he didn't provide specific names due to non-disclosure agreement constraints. The startup hopes to have its delivery device in clinical trials sometime in 2025.
"The goal is to sign several of these partnerships," Greenberger said. "And then, by the end of 2025 or 2026, start to look at exiting that technology."
In terms of the two medicines Nob Hill Therapeutics is also developing, he said those therapeutics are earlier on in developing, meaning they might not see clinical testing until 2026 or further out.
"If you look at technologies in the market today, they do a good job at getting small doses into lungs, but there aren't really good options for getting large amounts of medicine into the lungs," Greenberger said. "What that means is if we're able to get large amounts of medicine into a patient's lungs, there's a whole host of pulmonary-related diseases that we can potentially better treat."
He cited lung cancer, cystic fibrosis and pulmonary fibrosis as a few such diseases.
Tramway Ventures, an Albuquerque-based venture firm focused on the bio- and life-science industries led Nob Hill Therapeutics' Series A round. TCA Venture Group, a California-based investment group, and VIC Technology Venture Development, joined the round.
New Mexico Angels is an early investor in Nob Hill Therapeutics, as well, Greenberger said.
He added the startup envisions another raise next year to bring in more money for preparing its two therapeutics for clinical trials. It doesn't plan to hire any new employees with its recent Series A raise.
