UPDATE 2-Discovery Labs assessing strategic, financial options

* Assessing strategic and financial alternatives

* Curtailing investments in pipeline programs

* Pursuing restructuring of loan terms with Novaquest

* Q2 loss/shr $0.07 vs loss/shr $0.11 yr-ago

* Shares down as much as 14 percent (Adds analyst comment, conference call details, share movement)

BANGALORE, July 29 (Reuters) - Discovery Laboratories Inc (DSCO.O) said it was actively assessing various strategic and financial alternatives to secure necessary capital, adding that it would curtail investments in its respiratory pipeline programs until it raised capital or got a partner.

Shares of the company were down 12 percent at 52 cents in afternoon trade on Nasdaq, after touching a low of 51 cents.

"Financing overhang remains an issue. The company ended the quarter with about $23 million in cash which is enough to sustain operations until first-quarter 2010," Wedbush PacGrow analyst Kimberly Lee said. She has an "underperform" rating on Discovery stock.

Chief Executive Robert Capetola said his company's top priority was to secure strategic alliance partners and access capital to advance its KL4 surfactant pipeline.

The company's KL4 surfactant technology is focused on management of respiratory distress syndrome, acute respiratory failure and acute lung injury, and on cystic fibrosis.

"We can have partners in both in Europe and in the United States, and perhaps Japan as well, that share the development plans and finances with these programs," CEO Capetola said on a conference call.

The company is currently developing Surfaxin LS and Aerosurf as treatments for respiratory distress syndrome.

Without any partner or financing, the company estimates its cash outflow for the second half of the year to be about $13 million.

The company also said it was pursuing restructuring of the terms of its loan with strategic investment group Novaquest and was assessing alternative means of financing its payment.

As of June 30, the company had $10.3 million outstanding under the loan and it said the outstanding principal and all accrued interest was due and payable on April 30, 2010.

On Wednesday, the company also posted a second-quarter loss of $7.9 million, or 7 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $10.2 million, or 11 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.

Two analysts on average had expected a loss of 9 cents per share, excluding items, according to Reuters Estimates. (Reporting by Shailesh Kuber in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier and Aradhana Aravindan)