Special Delivery: RF Ablation and Breath-Actuated Nasal Spray Technologies Featured at BIOMEDevice

Some novel drug-delivery technologies were presented to conference attendees at last week’s BIOMEDevice Europe event in Paris. Two, in particular, got my attention: the use of radiofrequency (RF) ablation to push drugs through the skin and a breath-activated intranasal delivery device.
Biotech drugs will account for more than US$50 billion in sales this year, according to Galit Levin, Vice President, R&D Pharma, at Transpharma. “Almost all of these drugs require an injection device,” he noted, adding that there is a tremendous opportunity to develop a device that can deliver these drugs less invasively than the traditional syringe. Transdermal delivery is an attractive option for patients, but it has limitations because relatively few drugs can passively diffuse across the skin barrier at therapeutically useful rates. Transpharma, headquartered in Israel, has developed an alternative: RF ablation.

The company’s poration technique relies on the use of a microelectrode array that is placed against the skin. A high-frequency alternating current travels through the microelectrodes to create localized ablation of the skin cells. The process takes a fraction of a second, and because the microchannels penetrate only the outer layer of the skin, where there are no blood vessels or nerve endings, the patient suffers no pain or trauma.

The intranasal delivery device from UK-based OptiNose may look quite simple compared with Transpharma’s microelectrode arrays, but its design is quite ingenious. The breath-actuated device enables effective delivery of drugs to specific sites while preventing drug distribution to the lungs.

Conventional nasal sprays can be remarkably ineffective in delivering accurate amounts of medication to target areas, according to Per Gisle, MD and founder of OptiNose. To get around the nasal cavity’s stolid defenses, manufacturers recommend Cirque de Soleil-worthy physical contortions to properly administer the drug. “Patient compliance is very low,” deadpanned Gisle at the session. The breath-actuated device that he developed acts upon the nasal flap to allow targeted delivery of intranasal drugs to targeted regions of the nasal cavity, including the sinuses and olfactory region, without lung deposition.

The technology has potential in several major disease areas, according to Gisle, including the treatment of rhinitis and sinusitis and central nervous system disorders such as Parkinson’ and Alzheimer’s diseases.

Licensing and partnership opportunities are available.

Tags: Optinose, RF ablation, Transpharma