inhaled-therapy
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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.
Nocion Therapeutics, Inc.
Nocion Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company in the Boston area developing a new class of small-molecule 'charged' sodium channel blockers - nocions - that selectively, locally, and durably silence overactive sensory neurons (nociceptors) without numbing everything else. Its lead candidate, taplucainium, is an inhaled powder aimed at refractory and unexplained chronic cough, with broader potential across itch, pain, and neurogenic inflammation. The science was born in the Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital labs of Bruce Bean and Clifford Woolf.