Development of a treatment for advanced stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Challenge: Stage 3 and Stage 4 COPD patients, who are mostly elderly, have significant difficulty with the use of dry powder inhalers (DPIs) or pressurized metered dose (pMDI) inhalers used in the treatment of COPD. Elevation Pharmaceuticals was founded to address this unmet need.
Solution: Elevation developed a combination drug-device product using an off-patent drug and a novel nebulizer device with strong patent protection.
Results: The combination product exhibited very good PK data in Phase 1 clinical study and excellent efficacy data in Phase 2a clinical study. On the merits of these data Sunovion acquired Elevation, and eventually launched the product as Lonhala Magnair.