copd
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The COPD drug you breathe from a mist, not a puff
A three-person startup out of San Diego is betting that millions of COPD patients can't work an inhaler - and that a mist they can simply breathe will win a market the pharma giants keep buying up.
Atisama Therapeutics
Atisama Therapeutics (formerly Rage Bio) is a Melbourne-based clinical-stage biotech developing precision splice-switching oligonucleotide (SSO) therapies for chronic inflammatory disease. Its lead asset, RB042, is an inhaled RNA drug that targets the RAGE receptor to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) - a condition affecting hundreds of millions worldwide with few disease-modifying options. Spun out of a collaboration between IP Group Australia, Monash, Murdoch and the University of Western Australia, the company raised a $29M Series A in 2025 and advanced RB042 into Phase 1 clinical trials in 2026.
Respiree
Respiree is a Singapore-founded digital health company (an A*STAR spin-off) building clinically validated AI that pairs FDA-cleared cardio-respiratory wearable sensors with software to track lung and heart biomarkers over time. Its 1Bio platform helps hospitals, health systems and biopharma detect patient deterioration - such as COPD flare-ups and heart failure - days in advance, powering remote patient monitoring, clinical decision support and decentralized clinical trials across Asia-Pacific, Australia and the United States.
CSA Medical, Inc.
CSA Medical is a Lexington, Massachusetts medical device company that develops spray cryotherapy technology for the lungs. Its flagship RejuvenAir System delivers a metered dose of -196°C liquid nitrogen through a bronchoscope to destroy the damaged, mucus-producing cells that drive chronic bronchitis in COPD patients, while preserving the underlying tissue matrix so healthy airway cells can regrow. Backed by roughly $161M in total funding including a $53M Series D in 2024, the company submitted its FDA PMA in January 2026 following a successful pivotal SPRAY-CB trial.
Apreo Health
Apreo Health is a clinical-stage medical device company in Menlo Park, California developing the BREATHE Airway Scaffold, a bronchoscopically delivered, self-expanding nitinol implant that relieves lung hyperinflation in patients with severe emphysema. Unlike existing valve and surgical treatments that collapse or remove lung tissue, the scaffold gently tents open damaged airways to release trapped air while sparing healthy tissue, aiming to expand who can be treated. The company raised a $130M Series B in August 2025 to run its pivotal BREATHE-3 trial and prepare for early commercialization.
Samay
Samay (formerly Respira Labs) is a San Francisco Bay Area medtech company building Sylvee, a wearable chest patch that pings the lungs with sound waves and uses AI to detect COPD and predict flare-ups before they turn dangerous. Founded by physician-inventor Dr. Maria Artunduaga, the company turns a $40 acoustic sensor into a continuous, at-home alternative to hospital pulmonary function tests, aiming to catch the invisible early signs of lung disease that standard tools miss.
Kivo Health
Kivo Health delivers virtual pulmonary rehabilitation for people living with COPD. Patients receive a Kivo Kit - a cellular-connected iPad, Bluetooth pulse oximeter, and exercise bands - then join live small-group video sessions with licensed respiratory therapists twice a week from their living rooms. The Y Combinator-backed, San Francisco company partners with health systems like UCLA Health, UCSF Health, Cedars-Sinai, and Novant Health to keep Medicare members out of the hospital while improving symptoms, activity, and mood.
Maria Artunduaga
Maria Artunduaga is a Colombian-born physician-scientist, inventor and founder and CEO of Samay (formerly Respira Labs), a Mountain View medtech startup building a wearable plus AI platform that uses patented acoustic resonance to monitor lung function at home. She walked away from a plastic surgery residency at the University of Chicago after losing her grandmother Sylvia, taught herself engineering, and turned a kitchen-table idea into a company that has won the world's most competitive medtech accelerator and landed her on Inc.'s 2025 Female Founders list. She holds an MD, an MPH and an MTM, has collected dozens of prizes, six issued patents, and publications in Nature, NEJM and PNAS.
Theravance Biopharma US, LLC
Theravance Biopharma is a South San Francisco biopharmaceutical company built around a focused respiratory franchise. Its flagship product, YUPELRI (revefenacin), is the first and only once-daily nebulized long-acting muscarinic antagonist approved in the U.S. for COPD maintenance, commercialized with partner Viatris. Spun out of Innoviva in 2014 and trading on Nasdaq as TBPH, the company combines a profitable marketed product with high-value royalty assets - including a now-monetized stake in GSK's TRELEGY - and runs a lean, capital-disciplined model rather than chasing scale.
Aluna
Aluna is a San Francisco digital health company that turns daily breathing into data. Its FDA-cleared, palm-sized spirometer pairs with a gamified app and a clinician dashboard so people with asthma, COPD and cystic fibrosis - and their doctors - can track lung function (FEV1) at home and catch trouble before it becomes an emergency. Founded by three UC Berkeley alumni and originally named Knox Medical Diagnostics, Aluna raised about $27M total, including a $15.3M Series B in 2023, and was acquired by Huma in May 2025.
Cadence
Cadence is a New York-based clinical technology company that helps health systems deliver continuous, proactive care to patients with chronic conditions at home. It pairs FDA-cleared connected devices that track vitals with an AI-powered care platform and a 24/7 clinical team, so doctors can catch problems - rising blood pressure, fluid buildup, glucose swings - before they become emergencies. Cadence partners with more than 20 leading U.S. health systems and supports tens of thousands of patients across dozens of states, targeting chronic diseases such as heart failure, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and COPD.
Carda Health
Carda Health is a New York-based virtual care company that delivers clinically supervised cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation into patients' homes. Patients receive a connected care kit and are matched with a clinical exercise physiologist who monitors their vital signs live during sessions. The company exists to fix a brutal gap in heart and lung care: roughly 90% of eligible patients never complete traditional in-person rehab because of transportation, scheduling, and mobility barriers. Carda now treats tens of thousands of patients a year and works with major health plans and health systems.
Charvi Shetty
Charvi Shetty is the co-founder and CEO of Aluna, a San Francisco respiratory-health company that makes an FDA-cleared, pocket-sized spirometer paired with games and AI so patients can track lung function from home and send the data to their doctors. A UC Berkeley bioengineer with a UCSF master's in biomedical imaging, she left an algorithm-engineering job at Genentech to build the device, became the youngest recipient of an NSF SBIR grant, and is recognized as one of the youngest female CEOs to bring an FDA-cleared healthtech device to market. In 2023 Aluna raised a $15.3M Series B, bringing total funding to about $27M.
NuvoAir Medical
NuvoAir Medical is a virtual-first cardiopulmonary care company that helps patients with chronic heart and lung conditions - COPD, asthma, and CHF - manage their health from home before they end up in a hospital. Founded in Stockholm in 2015-2016 by Lorenzo Consoli and now headquartered in Boston, NuvoAir pairs FDA-cleared connected devices like the Air Next home spirometer with a clinical care team and data-driven monitoring. Its model is built around value-based care, with studies showing meaningful reductions in medical spend and hospitalizations. The company also powers decentralized clinical trials for pharma partners.
Victor Sadauskas
Victor Sadauskas is an emergency medicine physician turned entrepreneur and the Co-founder and CEO of Kivo Health, a San Francisco-based digital health company delivering AI-powered virtual pulmonary rehabilitation to COPD patients at home. A Y Combinator W23 alum, Sadauskas built Kivo from his firsthand clinical observation that only 3% of eligible COPD patients ever access pulmonary rehab - a gap he set out to close with a Medicare-covered, home-based program combining remote monitoring, respiratory therapy, and AI-driven coaching.