Drug delivery tech receives funding
The funding is the final chunk of the $4m it obtained from the venture capital firm ProQuest Investments, with NovaDel believing it has sufficient money to keep it going through the first half of 2009.
Over this period the company is seeking to continue development of its drug delivery technology, NovaMist. This provides a way to administer therapeutics to the mouth lining, which NovaDel claims offers a range of advantages.
Since NovaMist administers the drug through the highly absorptive buccal lining it quickly enters the bloodstream, ensuring a fast onset of action and reducing the therapeutic dosage that is required.
This route of administration means that the therapeutic avoids being metabolised by the liver, resulting in an increase in bioavailability compared to other delivery routes.
NovaDel also claims that the technology can increase patient compliance, which can in part be attributed to the convenience of not needed to swallow or have water to take the medication.
To date the technology has been used in one commercialised product, NitroMist, which is used for the treatment of angina.
A further commercialisation is a possibility, with NovaDel filing a new drug application (NDA) in September for ZolpiMist, a treatment that uses the delivery technology to administer zolpidem for insomnia sufferers.
The company’s pipeline also contains a treatment for nausea, for which a NDA is expected to be submitted in 2008, and four other formulations at various stages of preclinical and clinical development. In addition the company is developing a lower dose version of ZolpiMist for the treatment of middle-of-the-night awakenings.
All the formulations use the NovaMist technology, which is protected worldwide by 79 patents issued and over 90 that are pending.
