Being able to breathe is a natural born right of all living beings. When airways are obstructed by mucus plugs, patients are unable to breathe properly, and suffer long-term consequences leading to poor quality of life, frequent infections and increased risk of irreversible lung damage that can lead to respiratory failure.
CILA exists to help create a world where people with pulmonary diseases can “breathe easily” and their lungs and airways are protected from progressive irreversible damage.
To achieve our purpose, we aim to develop and deliver pragmatic and effective therapies that can reach patients with pulmonary disease quickly with time and cost-effective clinical development.
CILA was formed out of a desire to alleviate the suffering of a real-life patient with bronchiectasis. Treatment consisted of bronchodilators and corticosteroids with multiple hospitalizations due to recurrent infections.
The patient described the feeling of a solid, physical barrier when trying to breathe. This barrier was in fact "mucus plugs," which are responsible for progressive, irreversible lung damage, poor quality of life and in some cases respiratory failure and death.
I am an accidental entrepreneur. I never thought about quitting my full-time job in biotech and starting a company. But life had other plans for me. CILA was formed out of my desired to alleviate the suffering of my father. I watched him struggle to take every single breath. He described a physical barrier when he tried to breathe. Available treatments were not effective.
After researching the scientific literature, consulting with doctors and experts, and receiving advice from scientific peers, we could not identify an intervention that had a meaningful impact on my fathers' disease - pulmonary ciliary dyskinesia or PCD.
I could not help my father and he left this word truly "breathless," but my hope is that development and approval of CIL-05 can truly mean everyday relief from constant breathing difficulties, long-term protection of the lungs from progressive and permanent damage, and improved quality of life for other patients afflicted by similar respirator diseases. CIL-05 offers a transformative therapy that can make a meaningful difference in the outcomes for these patients.
