June 2026

Avalyn CEO Lyn Baranowski and team celebrating at the Nasdaq opening bell ceremony April 30, 2026

Avalyn Pharma (Nasdaq: AVLN) — a RiverVest Venture Fund III and Fund IV portfolio company — completed an upsized initial public offering on May 1, 2026, raising approximately $345 million in proceeds. Avalyn shares were priced at the top of the range, $18 per share, and began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (ticker symbol AVLN) on April 30, 2026.

The Boston-based, clinical-stage company is developing novel inhaled formulations of established oral antifibrotic medicines. The approach is designed to deliver drug directly to the lungs, where it is needed, reducing systemic side effects for patients with pulmonary fibrosis.

●    MIST, the Phase 2b trial of AP01 (inhaled pirfenidone) in progressive pulmonary fibrosis, is on track to complete enrollment by mid-2026, with topline data expected in the second half of 2027.

●    The AURA Phase 2 trial of AP02 (inhaled nintedanib) in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is now enrolling, with topline data anticipated by the end of 2027.

●  A Phase 1 trial of AP03, an inhaled fixed-dose combination of both agents, is on track to initiate by year-end. 

An Acquisition, an IPO, and a Strong Outlook for RiverVest's Portfolio

RiverVest held its 2026 annual meeting on May 6 at The Ritz-Carlton, St. Louis. Managing Director Jay Schmelter kicked off the afternoon with updates on fund performance and industry outlook, reporting clear signs of revival in life sciences investing: M&A activity has been robust, public markets have recovered, and the IPO window has reopened. These trends are reflected directly in RiverVest’s portfolio, with the acquisition of Bluejay Therapeutics in January and the IPO for Avalyn in May. 

Since our last annual meeting:

● Five portfolio companies raised new financings to support clinical advancement;

● Eight new clinical trials were initiated; and

● Three portfolio companies advanced to a new clinical stage.

Nine portfolio companies will be hitting key clinical milestones and revenue catalysts over the next 12–18 months, and the RiverVest team has been focused on providing them sufficient capital and operational support. 



Program

The theme of this year's annual meeting was Metabolic Health in the Era of GLP-1s, featuring a conversation between Irl Hirsch, MD, a leading endocrinologist from the University of Washington School of Medicine, and Derek Rapp, a RiverVest managing director*.

Dr. Hirsch emphasized that metabolic health extends well beyond obesity, encompassing type 2 diabetes, liver disease, sleep apnea, vascular disease, and other conditions. He described GLP-1 therapies as among the fastest-growing drug classes in modern medicine. They are already supplanting more established agents such as sulfonylureas and reducing the need for weight-loss surgery. At his University of Washington clinic, 13% of patients with type 1 diabetes and 41% with type 2 diabetes are now using GLP-1 therapies. With receptor sites distributed throughout the body, the class has broad physiological reach — and the safety data, to date, has been encouraging.

The History & Science of GLP-1 Therapies: RiverVest Managing Director Isaac Zike, PhD, presented the history of GLP-1 therapies, from the biology behind them to the commercial landscape today. The path to an approved therapy ran through an unexpected discovery. In 1992, a peptide isolated from Gila monster venom proved similar in structure to human GLP-1 but far more stable — a finding that led to the first FDA-approved GLP-1 receptor agonist, exenatide (brand name Byetta), in 2005. Each successive generation of GLP-1-related drugs has addressed the limitations of the last, leading to therapies that are more efficacious and less burdensome. FDA-mandated cardiovascular safety studies revealed an unexpected benefit: GLP-1 therapies meaningfully reduce major cardiac events. Worldwide revenue for the class grew from approximately $4.5 billion in 2015 to roughly $60 billion in 2025. Applications now span type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular indications, and research is underway in heart failure, sleep apnea, addiction, and Alzheimer's disease. 

RiverVest Portfolio Companies Engaged in Metabolic Health: RiverVest's Niall O'Donnell, PhD, Karen Spilizewski, and Pascal Krotee, PhD discussed the firm’s metabolic health portfolio across both medical devices and biopharma. Consistent with RiverVest’s investment strategy, the team targets metabolic indications with significant unmet need rather than broad markets that require large, expensive trials.

Two examples in Fund V are:

Biolinq, developing a new class of biowearables that offers real-time metabolic insights to support healthier decisions. The company’s first FDA-approved product uses an array of tiny electrochemical sensors to detect glucose just below the skin. Branded as Biolinq Shine™, the device can also track a user’s physical activity and sleep, giving a more holistic view of the user’s health. The device was cleared in September 2025 for use in people with type 2 diabetes who are not insulin-dependent. The company is preparing for a limited market release in 2026. Devices for other diabetic patient populations and devices for sensing other analytes are in development.

Sparrow Pharmaceuticals, targeting excessive cortisol as a hidden driver of diabetes drug resistance, especially significant in people who are not experiencing the benefits of GLP-1 therapies. (See presentation recap below).  



*A Congratulatory Note: RiverVest Managing Director Derek Rapp has joined the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center as Chief Operating Officer. RiverVest and the Danforth Center are part of the same St. Louis life sciences story. Both were founded around the turn of the millennium to support an emerging ecosystem designed to connect research, capital, and entrepreneurship. After six years with the firm, Derek brings to this role a career spanning biotechnology, nonprofit leadership, and venture capital. We congratulate Derek on this appointment, are grateful for his contributions to the firm, and wish him and the Danforth Center well.

Portfolio Company Presentations

Sparrow CEO Robert Jacks outlined the science and clinical opportunity behind clofutriben — a once-daily, oral HSD-1 inhibitor currently in Phase 2b development for type 2 diabetes with elevated cortisol, a large population with high unmet needs. HSD-1 inhibition is a novel mechanism that complements existing agents by addressing an underlying cause of disease progression and treatment resistance across a spectrum of metabolic dysfunction. The company will present interim data from the CAPTAIN-T2D trial at the Endocrine Society (ENDO) annual meeting on June 13 in Chicago, IL.

Wugen CEO Kumar Srinivasan, PhD, and CMO Cherry Thomas, MD, provided an update on soficabtagene geleucel (Sofi-cel), a potential first-in-class therapy currently in a pivotal trial for patients with a rare type of aggressive blood cancer that has relapsed or failed to respond to initial therapy. These are very sick patients — including very young children. Sofi-cel is an allogeneic therapy (meaning it originates from healthy donor cells) and is gene-edited to deliver robust anti-tumor activity. Sofi-cel has received multiple FDA designations (Breakthrough Therapy, RMAT, Fast Track, Orphan Drug, and Rare Pediatric Disease) as well as Priority Medicines (PRIME) designation in Europe, and is progressing toward an FDA Biologics License Application (BLA) in the second half of 2027. Wugen was co-founded by RiverVest and is in our Fund IV, Fund V, and Archer Seed Fund portfolios.

InterVene CEO Jeff Elkins joined us by Zoom to review progress on the Recana® Thrombectomy Catheter System, a minimally invasive, fully integrated system for treating persistent challenges related to deep vein thrombosis (DVT) that current therapies fail to address. The device received FDA 510(k) clearance in October 2025, and 36 cases have been completed. The company’s initial focus is in-stent restenosis (ISR), affecting approximately 30,000 patients in the US, and the team is preparing to expand commercialization in the coming months. InterVene is a RiverVest Fund III and Fund V portfolio company.

Huntington’s disease has long stood as one of the most challenging neurodegenerative disorders to address therapeutically. Despite a clear genetic cause and decades of research, progress toward disease-modifying treatments has been limited. In a recent Expert Insight, RiverVest Principal Pascal Krotee, PhD, explains the underlying biology of this devastating disease and how one RiverVest portfolio company hopes to crack the code on slowing, or potentially even stopping, its progression.

We encourage you to read Pascal’s article (below) or watch her interview to learn about Atalanta’s first-in-class treatment approach and what made this investment a strategic fit for RiverVest.

“Atalanta’s robust preclinical data gave us conviction that they’d overcome some of the shortcomings that have affected others in the RNA interference space… if their unique chemistry could stop the progression of the disease, that would be the Holy Grail — giving patients a longer and higher quality of life.”  - Pascal Krotee

Atalanta Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing treatments for intractable diseases of the central nervous system using RNA interference. Atalanta’s unique platform of divalent small interfering RNA is designed to enable durable, selective gene silencing throughout the brain and spinal cord. Atalanta is a RiverVest Fund V portfolio company.

For up-to-the-minute portfolio company news and announcements, be sure to visit the RiverVest website and follow us on LinkedIn.

Recent announcements include:

RiverVest Venture Partners is a leading life science venture capital firm focused on improving the lives of patients, supporting entrepreneurs, and earning the trust of investors through science, strategy, and innovation. 

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