NanoPhoria's EIC Accelerator Sends an Inhaler to the Heart

Getting a drug to work only on heart muscle is one of the hard problems in cardiology. NanoPhoria, founded in Milan in 2022 as a spin-off of Italy's National Research Council, does it through the lungs: a nano-in-micro formulation built on inorganic calcium phosphate nanoparticles is inhaled, and the particles carry their payload from the lung to cardiomyocytes, which the company says keeps the drug out of other organs. Its lead candidate, NP-MP1, is a first-in-class peptide that modulates the cardiac L-type calcium channel to restore contractility in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.

The EIC Accelerator selected the project, NP-MP1, at its October 2024 cut-off for blended finance, and CORDIS records a grant of €2,499,999 from June 2025 to May 2027 to de-risk development, complete a first-in-human trial and attract a licensee or acquirer. The company announced the award in February 2025 as €17.5 million including conditional equity, and in January 2026 confirmed that the EIC Fund had invested €15 million as part of an €83.5 million Series A.

A licence, a seed grant and a board

The company's first moves in 2022 were the practical ones: in May it was granted an exclusive patent licence to the inorganic nanoparticle delivery platform, and days later it announced a €3.5 million seed grant from Sofinnova Partners. In November 2022 co-founder Alessio Alogna presented the inhalation approach in a large animal model at the American Heart Association's scientific sessions in Chicago. In January 2024 it published a study in a cardiology journal and appointed Suman Shirodkar as chair, with Prof Michael Davidson joining the board.

The disease it has chosen is large and badly served. The company's website cites about 30 million patients worldwide with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, a five-year mortality above 60% in one 2022 source, and a projected $70 billion cost to the US health system by 2030; its January 2026 release puts five-year mortality at around 40%. Its own front page highlights a JAMA Cardiology study showing that even patients discharged on all four guideline-recommended drug classes still face roughly one in four rehospitalised and about one in five dead within a year.

What the grant is supposed to buy

The EIC project's job is to take NP-MP1 from animal proof of concept into humans: de-risk the development, complete first-in-human trials, and position the asset for a licensee or acquirer. The CORDIS summary is explicit that the efficacy and safety claims so far rest on animal models, and it gives no numbers at all. CORDIS shows no periodic report.

The company's own pipeline chart places NP-MP1 short of clinical development, and its description of the platform's wider promise is careful: proof of concept that the particles can deliver therapeutic peptides to cardiomyocytes, which could in principle carry other biologics to the same cells.

1. Lung-to-heart delivery of a peptideProof of conceptShown in animal models, including a large animal study.
2. Attracting investorsDone€83.5M Series A, including €15M from the EIC Fund.
3. IND-enabling studies and GMP scale-upFundedNamed as the use of the Series A; no completion reported.
4. First-in-human trialNot startedNP-MP1 described as preclinical in 2026.

The rare case where the EIC equity arrived

Most blended finance awards in this cut-off have produced a grant and a promise. NanoPhoria is one of the few where the second half materialised: the second close of the Series A in January 2026 did not change the total raised but let the company state that €15 million of it is EIC Fund equity. "Receiving EIC Fund support is hugely meaningful for any biotech company," CEO Claudio De Luca said. Svetoslava Georgieva, chair of the EIC Fund board, called the technology potentially redefining for targeted cardiology therapeutics.

The round itself, announced on 6 October 2025, was led by XGEN Venture, Sofinnova Partners and CDP Venture Capital with Panakes Partners, and is described as the largest Series A in Italian biotech history. It is to fund IND-enabling studies, early clinical development, GMP manufacturing scale-up, regulatory work and indications beyond heart failure. NanoPhoria's accounts were not obtained for this article.

Italian public research, European money

The chain here is unusually clean: a platform developed at Italy's National Research Council, licensed to a spin-off, seeded by a European life sciences fund, then funded by the EIC with both a grant and equity, with the Italian state investor CDP Venture Capital alongside. CDP's director of direct investments framed it as bringing Italian research onto the global stage. For the EIC, it is also the model it argues for: use the grant to de-risk, then invest through the fund when private investors come in.