A UCL School of Pharmacy collaboration on a novel infant drug and nutrient breast feeding aid won first prize in Pitch@Palace 5.0.
Delivering drugs in a safe, efficacious and robust manner is significantly difficult in children with neonates, being the most challenging sub-population. This is a particular challenge in low resource settings, where access to clean water and effective means of consistent hygienic delivery methods are extremely limited.
JustMilk is dedicated to furthering technology and promoting infant health worldwide. The project was originally formed at the International Development Design Summit (IDDS), held by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2008. Since then, collaborations have been formed with several public health and academic institutions, creating a truly interdisciplinary and international team.
Since 2013, Dr Catherine Tuleu, Reader in Pharmaceutics at the UCL School of Pharmacy, has been involved with JustMilk via a Saving Lives at Birth Seed Grant in collaboration with the BioScience Engineering Research Group, Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge.
JustMilk came first place in Pitch@Palace 5.0, a competition hosted by His Royal Highness the Duke of York. The event featured pitches by the 14 ventures who survived the Pitch@Palace Bootcamp.
This award provides start-ups an opportunity to pitch their ventures to key stakeholders: over 400 leaders from organisations including grant funding agencies, venture capital firms, pharmaceutical companies and NGOs.
Winning this award, ‘Gave us the opportunity to give a voice to the millions of infants at risk of death from preventable disease without hygienic paediatric medicines available.
‘This has been an inspiring unparalleled opportunity to direct attention to the magnitude of need for innovation for paediatric medicines and their delivery systems,’ said Rebekah Scheuerle, one of the founders of JustMilk Limited (2015).
The JustMilk breast feeding aid/device is a thin, disposable silicone nipple shield, modified to hold a dispersible therapeutic tablet, which delivers the medication directly to the infant via the flow of breast milk.
At the UCL School of Pharmacy, Dr Tuleu and Dr Kendall (former research fellow on the project) play an integral role in developing a rapidly-disintegrating tablet insert for the nipple shield drug delivery system. Through this expertise in paediatric pharmacy and formulation, JustMilk ensures that the tablets are developed to surpass all relevant requirements, including optimal disintegration, drug release, and acceptable palatability as well as being tolerable for the mother’s skin.
