ALung Technologies recently raised $36 million in a Series C round in order to fund a US trial of its investigational artificial lung technology for patients with respiratory failure, according to an article by FierceBiotech.
The FDA granted the Pittsburgh-based company an Expedited Access Pathway designation for its HemoLung Respiratory Assist System in 2015. The system is designed to remove carbon dioxide from and deliver oxygen to a patient’s blood independently of his or her lungs. It may be used to avoid intubating patients or putting them on a mechanical ventilator.
The CE-marked device includes a catheter, inserted in a patient’s superior or inferior vena cava and transports blood from the body to the HemoLung cartridge, which combines a centrifugal blood pump and a gas exchange membrane. A controller continuously measures and displays the amount of carbon dioxide removed from the blood, allowing caregivers to adjust settings as needed.
