Investors have bought into Windgap Medical’s plan to disrupt the autoinjector market. Just months after disclosing a $17 million round, Windgap has raised $39 million to fund work on a small, temperature-resilient rival to EpiPen.
Massachusetts-based Windgap is developing products based on its Andipen autoinjector technology. The plan is to use the thermally stable drug delivery platform to create a product that is half the size and has double the shelf-life of existing devices. Andipen is a wet/dry dual-chamber autoinjector platform that automates the rehydration and administration of small-molecule doses of up to 0.3 ml.
Windgap’s first target is the anaphylaxis market dominated by EpiPen. Like EpiPen, Windgap’s product will package epinephrine, the hormone also known as adrenaline, in a delivery format that makes it easy to administer in an emergency. The difference is Windgap’s device should be smaller and have a longer shelf-life. ALK-Abelló picked up global rights to the epinephrine autoinjector in 2019.
Investors see promise in the technology. The latest round, which topped Windgap’s initial target of $32 million, was led by Taiwania Capital with assists from existing backers such as Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk and Molex Ventures and new investors including Cobro Ventures.
RELATED: Windgap bags $17M to advance smaller, longer-life autoinjectors
Windgap CEO Christopher Stepanian set out what the $39 million round means for the company. “This oversubscribed round allows us to energize our ongoing epinephrine commercialization process and grow our pipeline of additional products utilizing our autoinjector technology,” Stepanian said in a statement.
The rest of the pipeline features a cyanide poisoning treatment and a glucagon autoinjector. Windgap is supporting the expansion of its pipeline by investing in a second delivery platform that is designed for use with large-volume, high-viscosity therapies.