Delivery of drugs, biopharmaceuticals and vaccines via the nose offer many compelling advantages including reduced nausea and toxicity and rapid onset. Nasal delivery devices improve patient compliance compared with parenteral administration, by providing improved ease of use via either caregiver-based or self administration, as well as obviating the need for biohazardous disposal of needle sharps. Austin, Texas based Mystic Pharmaceuticals is an integrated specialty pharmaceutical company that combines large and small molecule pharmaceuticals, biologic agents and vaccines with their advanced proprietary drug delivery technologies to meet the expanding healthcare demands of the global population. Their ophthalmic, intranasal, otic, oral and lyophilized drug delivery technologies are designed to provide pharmaceutical and biologic products which are lower cost, non-invasive, and simplified self administration for enhanced compliance, safety and convenience.
The need for rapid manufacturing capacity for vaccines has recently emerged as a major consideration for US bio-defense preparedness policy. The life science industry players have taken notice of Mystic’s technology in this arena and the company has been invited to present at OneMedForum NY 2011.
In addition to their innovative, problem-solving intranasal drug delivery technology, Mystic is developing an eye drop device for the ophthalmic market that greatly reduces the problems associated with medication waste and the “wet face syndrome” with the current eye dropper method. Effective eye drop administration from a bottle is further complicated by the challenges of having to tip back the head, while positioning a very small bottle over the eye, while squeezing the bottle with the appropriate level of force. Mystic’s device seeks to alleviate these problems and essentially resolve the dilemma with their eye cup design which aids the user in exact positioning of the device and in holding the eyelid in the optimum position.
The Mystic team and Timothy Sullivan were recognized in 2008 by Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry Magazine as one of the top 100 notable people in the medical device industry for their accomplishments in drug delivery. Further, the company was featured in the April 2011 issue of OnDrugDelivery.com for their novel advances in drug delivery.
In late 2010, the company was awarded a non-taxable grant of approximately $245,000 under the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project (QTDP) program included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act of 2010. To be eligible for the QTDP program, projects must show reasonable potential to result in new therapies to treat areas of unmet medical need and prevent, detect, or treat chronic or acute disease and conditions.