A Cumberland drug company has raised $3 million in funding as it works toward gaining approval for a new cannabis-derived treatment for lung diseases.
RS BioTherapeutics plans to use the capital from its second seed round to focus on developing a medication for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Justin Molignoni said the company will apply for an investigational new drug application from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and hopes to submit it in 2024. If the application is approved, it would allow the company to begin clinical studies on humans.
The company also plans to build a 100-person hemp cultivation and manufacturing facility in rural Maryland within the next five years. The Cumberland-area facility would both grow the hemp used to make RS BioTherapeutics' medications and manufacture the drug itself. The company has hired a chief cultivation officer, Jeremy Plumb from Prūf Cultivar in Portland, Oregon, to help develop the cultivation side of the company.
Since Molignoni will be producing hemp, a strain of cannabis with almost no active THC, Molignoni is able to set up a full one-stop shop for cultivation and manufacturing in Cumberland without going through the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission. RS BioTherapeutics uses two forms of CBD, a chemical inside the cannabis plant, to treat inflammation.
Although COPD will be the initial condition RS BioTherapeutics focuses on, the company claims its compound, RSBT-001, could also treat other lung diseases like Covid-19 or asthma.
RS BioTherapeutics' second round was led by the Freas family, whose patriarch William Freas operates a Cumberland health care management company CareVentures. The round had some participation from traditional venture capital but was primarily led by individuals with high net worths.
Molignoni chose Cumberland for RS Therapeutics in part due to his relationship with the Freas family, but also because of his own background growing up in a Pennsylvania town that suffered from a similar economic decline when manufacturing left.
“It's always been a passion of mine to be able to bring meaningful jobs and meaningful change to areas that might not necessarily ever see it,” said Molignoni, who founded the company in 2021.
Molignoni credited the programs the state of Maryland has created to incentivize businesses, including the Maryland Economic Development Corp. and the Maryland Technology Development Corp., as factors for why he chose Cumberland, Maryland. The potential impacts of climate change could also lead to a revitalization of rural areas like Cumberland, Molignoni said, as the climate becomes more unstable for botanical products in areas such as the coast and the southern United States.
What makes the company's drug different from simply smoking CBD cannabis is the delivery method. RSBT-001 uses two layers of protection, a water layer around an oily core, to increase the ability of RSBT-001 to get through water membranes within the body, increasing absorption.
Currently, lung inflammation is treated primarily through steroids, which have a variety of side effects such as high blood pressure and mood swings. Molignoni's experience seeing the impact of steroids on his patients as a registered nurse helped inspire the creation of RS BioTherapeutics. Molignoni is working with several experienced scientists, including Tom Piccariello, the developer of RSBT-001 who previously created the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder medication Vyvanse, and Ron Goode, who previously worked at Pfizer.
“We could potentially be something to reduce the amount of steroid use or be an adjunct therapy,” Molignoni said. “Cannabinoids have been around for thousands of years, we understand the general safety.”
