MinterEllison has advised Ena Respiratory Pty Ltd, an investee company of the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund managed by Brandon Capital, on its demerger and transformative funding round for the development of its INNA-051 spray.

The spray is soon to start human studies, and could be used to treat several respiratory viruses, including COVID-19.

Ena Respiratory received $32 million in funding from The Minderoo Foundation, Brandon Capital and Uniseed to help with this research. MinterEllison acted for Ena throughout these transactions. The team also provided specialist corporate structuring and intellectual property advice throughout the new investment process.

MinterEllison partner James Hutton said: "We're delighted to support Ena Respiratory through this transformation as it researches and develops medical products that could have an enormous impact on the community's health and wellbeing.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has, more than ever, highlighted the critical role of medical research and life sciences in our community. We're proud to assist the team at Ena Respiratory through a range of complex transactions to help support their important work," he added.

Mr Hutton was assisted by others in the MinterEllison team, including Nicole Reid, Alexander Persano and Josh Carfi.