Beyond Air, Inc. (NASDAQ: XAIR), today announced that the Company has drawn $5 million from its previously announced $25 million line of credit to provide the resources to more rapidly move the LungFit™ BRO COVID-19 program forward.
GARDEN CITY, N.Y., and REHOVOT, Israel, March 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Beyond Air, Inc. (NASDAQ: XAIR), a clinical-stage medical device and biopharmaceutical company focused on developing inhaled Nitric Oxide (NO) for the treatment of patients with respiratory conditions, serious lung infections, including those suffering from COVID-19, and pulmonary hypertension, as well as gaseous NO for the treatment of solid tumors, today announced that the Company has drawn $5 million from its previously announced $25 million line of credit to provide the resources to more rapidly move the LungFit™ BRO COVID-19 program forward.
“While we await feedback from BARDA (a division of HHS) and other US and international agencies, this money allows us to accelerate the anticipated COVID-19 clinical study start,” said Steve Lisi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Beyond Air. “While we anticipate receiving grants on an emergency basis, we have decided that there is an urgent need to commence the study as soon as possible pending IDE approval from FDA.”
About Beyond Air, Inc.
Beyond Air, Inc. is a clinical-stage medical device and biopharmaceutical company developing a revolutionary NO Generator and Delivery System, LungFit™, that uses NO generated from ambient air to deliver precise amounts of NO to the lungs for the potential treatment of a variety of pulmonary diseases. The LungFit™ can generate up to 400 ppm of NO for delivery either continuously or for a fixed amount of time and has the ability to either titrate dose on demand or maintain a constant dose. The Company is currently applying its therapeutic expertise to develop treatments for pulmonary hypertension in various settings, in addition to treatments for lower respiratory tract infections that are not effectively addressed with current standards of care. Beyond Air is currently advancing its revolutionary LungFit™ in clinical trials for the treatment of bronchiolitis and severe lung infections such as nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), as well as for the potential treatment of COVID-19 patients. Additionally, Beyond Air is using ultra-high concentrations of NO with a proprietary delivery system to target certain solid tumors in the pre-clinical setting. For more information, visit www.beyondair.net.
About Nitric Oxide (NO)
Nitric Oxide (NO) is a powerful molecule proven to play a critical role in a broad array of biological functions. In the airways, NO targets the vascular smooth muscle cells that surround the small resistance arteries in the lungs and is used in adult respiratory distress syndrome and persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn. Additionally, NO is believed to play a key role in the innate immune system and in vitro studies suggest that NO possesses anti-microbial activity not only against common bacteria, including both gram-positive and gram-negative, but also against other diverse organisms, including mycobacteria, viruses, fungi, yeast and parasites, and has the potential to eliminate multi-drug resistant strains.
About the LungFit™ NO Generator and Delivery System*
Beyond Air’s NO Generator and Delivery System is a cylinder-free, phasic flow Nitric Oxide delivery system and has been designated as a medical device by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The ventilator compatible version of the device can generate NO from ambient air on demand for delivery to the lungs at concentrations ranging from 1 part per million (ppm) to 80 ppm. The LungFit™ could potentially replace large, high-pressure NO cylinders providing significant advantages in the hospital setting, including greatly reducing inventory and storage requirements, improving overall safety with the elimination of NO2 purging steps, and other benefits. The LungFit™ can also deliver NO at concentrations above 80 ppm for which intended treatments are: bronchiolitis in the hospital setting, and chronic, refractory lung infections in the home setting. For the first time, Beyond Air intends to offer NO treatment in the home setting with the elimination of cylinders.
* Beyond Air’s LungFit™ is not approved for commercial use and Beyond Air is not suggesting use over 80 ppm or use at home. Beyond Air’s LungFit™ is for investigational purposes only.
About COVID-19
COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) is an infectious disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). COVID-19 first emerged in Wuhan, China in December of 2019. Those affected develop fever, cough, shortness of breath and/or difficulty breathing. While the majority of cases result in mild symptoms, some can progress to pneumonia and multi-organ failure. The fatality rate is currently estimated at between 1% and 3%. Older adults and people who have serious chronic medical conditions are at an increased risk of developing severe complications from COVID-19. There is no specific treatment approved for COVID-19 and patients are managed with supportive care. NO may prove to be a treatment as the impact on the lung should result in bronchodilation, reduction in inflammation and inhibition of the viral replication process. As of March 17, 2020, more than 190,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 7,500 deaths have been reported in more than 160 countries.
About Bronchiolitis
The majority of hospital admissions of infants with bronchiolitis are caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). RSV is a common and highly transmissible virus that infects the respiratory tract of most children before their second birthday. While most infants with RSV present with minor respiratory symptoms, a small percentage develop serious lower airway infections, termed bronchiolitis, which can become life-threatening. The absence of treatment options for bronchiolitis limits the care of these sick infants to largely supportive measures. Beyond Air’s system is designed to effectively deliver over 80 ppm NO, for which preliminary studies indicate may eliminate bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microbes from the lungs.
Forward-Looking Statement
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” concerning inhaled nitric-oxide and the Company’s LungFit™ product, including statements with regard to potential regulatory developments, the potential impact on patients and anticipated benefits associated with its use. Forward-looking statements include statements about our expectations, beliefs, or intentions regarding our product offerings, business, financial condition, results of operations, strategies or prospects. You can identify such forward-looking statements by the words “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “impacts,” “plans,” “projects,” “believes,” “estimates,” “likely,” “goal,” “assumes,” “targets” and similar expressions and/or the use of future tense or conditional constructions (such as “will,” “may,” “could,” “should” and the like) and by the fact that these statements do not relate strictly to historical or current matters. Rather, forward-looking statements relate to anticipated or expected events, activities, trends or results as of the date they are made. Because forward-looking statements relate to matters that have not yet occurred, these statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are only predictions and reflect our views as of the date they are made with respect to future events and financial performance. Many factors could cause our actual activities or results to differ materially from the activities and results anticipated in forward-looking statements, including risks related to: our approach to discover and develop novel drugs, which is unproven and may never lead to efficacious or marketable products; our ability to fund and the results of further pre-clinical and clinical trials; obtaining, maintaining and protecting intellectual property utilized by our products; our ability to enforce our patents against infringers and to defend our patent portfolio against challenges from third parties; our ability to obtain additional funding to support our business activities; our dependence on third parties for development, manufacture, marketing, sales, and distribution of products; the successful development of our product candidates, all of which are in early stages of development; obtaining regulatory approval for products; competition from others using technology similar to ours and others developing products for similar uses; our dependence on collaborators; our short operating history and other risks identified and described in more detail in the “Risk Factors” section of the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC, all of which are available on our website. We undertake no obligation to update, and we do not have a policy of updating or revising, these forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable law.
CONTACT
Steven Lisi, Chief Executive Officer
Beyond Air, Inc.
slisi@beyondair.net
Bob Yedid
LifeSci Advisors, LLC
Bob@LifeSciAdvisors.com
(646) 597-6989
