Windtree Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on developing aerosolized KL4 surfactant therapies for respiratory diseases, and CVie Investments Limited (CVie), together with its wholly-owned subsidiary, CVie Therapeutics Limited, a privately-held company focused on developing drugs to treat cardiovascular diseases, have entered an agreement for the merger of a Windtree Therapeutics subsidiary and CVie. The combined company, which will retain the name Windtree Therapeutics, will be a fully-integrated and diversified acute care company with four mid-to-late clinical stage product assets and multiple preclinical assets and programs. Led by Windtree management, the merged company will continue to be headquartered in Warrington, PA with pre-clinical operations in Taipei, Taiwan and Milan, Italy.
 
“This CVie merger is highly complementary and successfully meets our goal to create a company with multiple high-quality product assets focused on significant unmet medical needs in important acute cardiovascular and acute respiratory markets,” said Craig Fraser, president and chief executive officer, Windtree. “We enter 2019 with a broad clinical and preclinical pipeline that creates numerous value generating opportunities to the benefit of patients and shareholders alike.”
 
“The merger allows CVie to leverage Windtree’s experienced management team, significant drug and business development capabilities and as a U.S. publicly-traded company, access to a broader range of investors,” said James Huang, a former director of CVie and managing partner, KPCB China and newly appointed chairman for Windtree’s board of directors. “These attributes are essential to the next stage of development of our novel cardiovascular programs including Istaroxime, which just successfully completed phase 2b for acute heart failure, and Rostafuroxin for genetically related hypertension. Furthermore, as a potentially transformative therapy for acute respiratory distress syndrome, Aerosurf is a highly attractive program with significant potential. We believe this merger creates a new and exciting global biopharmaceutical company.”