Enable Injections said it has closed a $30 million Series A financing to commercialize its wearable, large-volume injector that allows patients to self-administer infusions of biologic meds.
Without a needle in sight, the device is about the size of one’s palm and adheres to the body during dosing. Patients insert standard drug vials or syringes into the device, place the injector on the skin and press a button to start the infusion. The device also warms a refrigerated drug in as little as 30 seconds, compared with a more typical 30-minute wait.
The Cincinnati, OH-based developer, since its founding in 2010, has been focusing on developing and manufacturing wearable devices that enable patients to self-administer complicated drugs.
This time, it got a financial infusion from an investor group led by ORI Healthcare Fund, whose founder, Simone Song, described the company as “the pioneer that can change the standard of care” for delivering high-volume biologics.
The company is currently in pilot manufacturing, and the money will be used to fund its push toward an FDA approval and a subsequent launch for the product. It also plans to utilize the funding to triple its workforce from the current 50 to 150 by 2018.
CincyTech, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, CintriFuse and the Ohio Innovation Fund also participated in the round.
Doses of biologic therapies are far larger in volume than those of small-molecule meds. One dose often exceeds 5mL. Given that a typical syringe delivers 1mL, patients usually have to seek professional medical help to administer infusions.
By reducing warming time and eliminating the procedure of changing the main container, the Enable Injector, available in different sizes ranging from 5mL to as large as 50mL, is intended to solve that problem and make self-delivering drugs at home possible for these patients.
The company seems quite optimistic about the product’s future, because large-molecule, protein-based therapeutics such as AbbVie’s blockbuster Humira continue to drive pharmaceutical growth. As 2016 Global Life Sciences Outlook produced by Deloitte shows, such drugs are expected to reach $445 billion in sales by 2019 from $289 billion in 2014.
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