C2I 2020 Medical & Healthcare shortlist

Category: Medical & Healthcare

Project: Adhesive Drug Eluting Devices for Unmet Clinical Needs in Oral Medicine

Partners: University of Sheffield with AFYX Therapeutics

Anyone who has ever suffered with a mouth ulcer can attest not only to the discomfort that they can cause, but also how difficult they can be to treat. Wet or mucosal surfaces like the inside of the mouth are uniquely challenging for medicine, as traditional dressings that might be used on the skin simply don’t stick, and hence can’t deliver drugs over a sustained period of time.

Working alongside the University of Sheffield, AFYX Therapeutics has developed an entirely new type of adhesive medical device that can adhere to wet or mucosal surfaces and deliver drugs, opening up a novel stream of treatment for areas of the body that have previously been underserved. The collaboration demonstrated that certain hygroscopic polymers - processed using electro spinning to present a high surface area to volume ratio - were able to take up water at the mucosal surface to form a viscous, adhesive layer. This high surface area also facilitates drug-delivery, with the steroid clobetasol successfully used in a 2020 clinical trial to treat oral lichen planus (OLP), a form of mouth ulcer.