Startup profile: Advent Therapeutics
Founded by: David Lopez, Robert Segal and Jan Mazela
Year founded: 2017
Headquarters: Doylestown, PA
Sector: Neonatal therapeutics
Funding and valuation: $6.37 million raised
Key ecosystem partners: Ben Franklin Technology Partners
In August 1963, President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy lost their premature son to a newborn lung disease that doctors at the time had little ability to treat. The tragedy helped draw both national attention and federal research funding to the science of neonatal respiratory care.
More than 60 years later, doctors have dramatically improved survival for premature babies. But neonatal lung conditions still affect families.
Founded in 2017, Advent Therapeutics is developing Vitamin-A based medicines for neonatal respiratory disorders, particularly bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a chronic lung disease that can develop in extremely premature infants. One version of the drug would be delivered through an IV line, while a second one, still in development, would deliver vitamin A directly to the lungs as an inhaled treatment.
Advent is developing Vitamin-A based medicines for neonatal respiratory disorders.
“These are very preterm infants,” said cofounder and CEO David Lopez. “They’re very fragile.”
For the Advent team, that fragility defines the challenge of neonatal medicine. Even routine treatments can carry risks for babies born weeks or months before their due date, which is why clinicians and researchers continue searching for safer ways to support lung development in the NICU.
Much of Advent’s research so far has been funded through competitive federal grants and support from state-backed programs as the team works to tackle one of the most persistent complications facing premature infants.
Why premature lungs are so vulnerable
Neonatal respiratory medicine often focuses on two closely related conditions. Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) is an acute disorder caused by immature lungs — the disease that claimed the Kennedys’ son in 1963. Bronchopulmonary dysplasia, often called BPD, is a chronic lung condition that can develop in extremely premature infants who survive those early respiratory challenges.
Babies born extremely early have underdeveloped lungs and often require oxygen or ventilators to survive in the neonatal intensive care unit. While those interventions save lives, they can also damage fragile lung tissue, leading to a chronic condition that can keep infants hospitalized for months and cause lifelong respiratory problems, per Lopez.
“Children that are this premature are invariably significantly vitamin A deficient,” Lopez said.
Vitamin A, he says, plays a key role in lung development. Researchers have studied the connection between vitamin A and respiratory health for decades, though delivering the nutrient safely and effectively to the smallest patients has proved difficult.
Earlier attempts relied on oral supplements or repeated injections. But extremely premature infants often cannot absorb oral vitamins well because their digestive systems are still developing, while injections can be invasive and challenging for babies that may weigh only a few pounds.
Advent’s intravenous vitamin A drug is designed specifically for neonatal use, allowing clinicians to safely deliver vitamin A during the first weeks of life, a critical window for lung development. Lopez said the therapy could reach the market in roughly 16 months if the company secures additional funding to complete final clinical work.
The inhaled version represents a longer-term opportunity. By delivering vitamin A directly to the lungs via aerosol, Advent hopes to create a non-invasive therapy that targets the organ most affected by the disease.
100% owned by founders and stakeholders
Much of the company’s development so far has been funded through federal research grants. Since launching in 2017, Advent has received more than $6 million through the National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
Early support also came from Ben Franklin Technology Partners, which provided about $370,000 in matching funding to help get the company started.
“This company is 100% owned by its founders and its stakeholders,” Lopez said. “NIH doesn’t take equity.”
The company has largely operated without outside investors so far, with founders and collaborators contributing time and resources while advancing the research.
Today, Advent operates out of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center in Doylestown, about 40 miles north of Philadelphia, while collaborating with researchers and clinicians across the US and Europe. The company has about five core team members and roughly a dozen collaborators worldwide, including neonatal specialists who work directly with the patients the company hopes to serve.
For Lopez, the work reflects a broader gap in medicine.
“There are no drugs that are regularly being invented and approved for neonates, much less pediatric patients,” he said. “Neonatologists sometimes use drugs that are 80 years old because nobody’s making anything for them.”
The company is now at a pivotal stage. Completing the final clinical work will require additional investment, Lopez said. The aerosol program represents the company’s most ambitious goal: a therapy that could be delivered directly to premature lungs without repeated injections.
“This is an area of medicine where there’s an enormous unmet need,” Lopez said. “You see what it actually does to a family. We talk with them all the time.”
This story is made possible thanks to support from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, a nonprofit that leads the Philadelphia region’s equitable economic growth by nurturing and investing in innovative, early-stage companies, and through purposeful involvement in regional and national initiatives.
