University of Florida Startup Launches Million-dollar Indiegogo Campaign to Eliminate Painful Needle Injections for Insulin
Gainesville, FL (PRWEB) August 04, 2014 -- A University of Florida biotech spinoff has launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise $1,000,000 to advance development of their groundbreaking needle-free, temperature stable insulin patches. These patches are expected to replace billions of painful needle injections every year and improve the lives patients around the world with Type I and Type II diabetes as well as those who are pre-diabetic.
Founded by former faculty at UF and Harvard Medical School, Stephen Hsu, MD-PhD, Prometheon Pharma seeks to improve not only individual patients’ lives, but also significantly reduce the burden of healthcare costs on nations and society.
“Diabetes and prediabetes is a global epidemic. The treatment method has not made any significant improvements since 1922 with patients needing at least one needle prick per day to as many as five or six,” said Dr. Hsu. “They have to carry these needles everywhere they go and if they so much as miss one dose, the outcome can be very dangerous.”
Prometheon Pharma hopes that the Indiegogo funding (http://www.igg.me/at/nopricks) will support costly studies that will allow the company to apply for FDA approval to begin clinical trials on humans.
“We are ready to rapidly move through all the required testing to get into Phase I clinical trials. We chose Indiegogo because we also want to raise public awareness of the personal impact of diabetes alongside the breakthrough technology of the patch. Advocating for patients is a very important mission for us,” said Hsu.
The Indiegogo campaign will run until September 8th and offers perks for funders supporting this sustainable healthcare initiative.
Prometheon’s goal is to have the patch available to patients by 2018, which is approximately half the time it typically takes to get a completely new drug to market, since insulin is already FDA-approved with a long track record of safety and efficacy. Prometheon Pharma’s patch will continuously and consistently deliver insulin for up to 7 days, and can be replaced at any time to suit user lifestyle and convenience. Insulin delivery can also be immediately stopped by removing the patch, an advantage over oral, inhaled, or injected insulin delivery.
While diabetes is the first application for Prometheon, the patch platform technology would later be applied to vaccines, chemotherapy, and many other injectable drugs. Its simplicity, low manufacturing cost and significantly reduced reliance on cold storage also mean that rural and impoverished populations will equally benefit from this disruptive technology.
“I can’t begin to tell you how much better my life would be, how much more freedom I would feel, and how much easier it would be to stick to my insulin regimen if I didn’t have to inject myself anymore. Any reduction would be amazing. This product will change the world, and the lives of countless millions living with diabetes,” said Bret McCall, a UF student who has been living with Type 1 diabetes since 2005.
Prometheon Pharma is a startup housed in the globally #1 ranked Sid Martin Biotech Incubator at the University of Florida.
About Prometheon Pharma LLC:
Headquartered in the University of Florida’s Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator, Prometheon Pharma is dedicated to advancing global health equity by developing the first needle-free transdermal, low-refrigeration patches for insulin and other large peptide and protein drugs. Prometheon Pharma is poised to bring needle-free technology for passive delivery of large molecule drugs across the skin to the market as convenient, simple, and affordable health care products, which includes an insulin patch for persons suffering from diabetes. Prometheon is also pursuing a new class of anti-obesity drugs and other pharmaceutical innovations to increase worldwide access to needed drug therapies.
Press inquiries: E-mail: contact(at)prometheonpharma(dot)com
http://www.NoPricks.com/
Devon Grimme, Prometheon Pharma, http://www.PrometheonPharma.com, +1 3864180320, [email protected]
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