This week’s Psychedelic Groundbreaker is Nasolution. Nasolution is the first smart nasal solution for the safe self-administration of intranasal medication at home.
What’s this article series about? Psychedelic Groundbreakers is a get-to-know-you-style blog series highlighting prominent and groundbreaking companies in the psychedelics industry.
What’s your company vision?
With the current opioid epidemic ravaging the country, the need for more oversight and control of abusable medications is greater than ever before. There is a multitude of these medications administered intranasally which can be used to treat chronic pain, psychiatric disorders, and neurological disorders. Any of these medications can be administered with the proposed Nasolution system. Few technologies exist that allow health care practitioners to have optimal oversight over patients when the patients are not in their immediate care. As a result of this lack of oversight, the administration of these dangerous prescription medications typically has to be under the immediate care of a doctor, which is simply not possible for millions of people. Nasolution will offer these people safe access to life-saving medications that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to take.
Why was your company started?
The company began in 2019, two years ago, while Jacob and his father, who is a psychiatrist in Atlanta, were conducting clinical studies with an intranasal drug called ketamine, for depression and anxiety. That year, we attended conferences and interviewed the market, finding all of these hurdles that patients had to overcome just to receive their simple nasal spray medication, and discovered doctors in that process that were really begging for something like Nasolution to be created.
Ketamine could truly be the most promising treatment for depression in decades, but because of safety risks, doctors make patients come into an office to receive their medication. What that does is it then creates challenges of monitoring fees and excessive time for so many patients that just can’t afford to do this. With 5 million people in the U.S. with treatment-resistant depression and as the adoption of this drug continues to grow, safe delivery of this drug at home with Nasolution is going to be imperative.
However, further research discovered that we were just scratching the surface of this technology’s applications. There is a multitude of medications administered intranasally for which similar oversight and compliance technology could seriously improve the treatment process. Opiates, sleep disorder medications, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s medications… the list of treatments that this technology will unlock to not only be delivered, but be delivered safer, goes on and on.
What’s been the biggest challenge so far?
The regulatory testing involved to gain FDA approval through the submission of a 510k has been and will be the biggest challenge for the company, but we have hired a regulatory consultant and are working with a design engineering firm to work through the required tests.
Describe your business model in 10 words or less
Ensuring safe and compliant delivery of controlled intranasal medications
What excites you most?
It is extremely exciting to be creating the first-of-its-kind system to allow safe self-administration of controlled intranasal medications. Drug control is such a growing industry and as the pharmaceutical industry continues to shift to intranasal medications, this Nasolution platform is going to allow remote regulation and connectivity between doctors and patients, enabling patients to receive the safe healthcare that they desperately need.
What is your biggest lesson learned when raising capital?
It is important to tailor your responses and information to the interests and portfolios of potential investors.
Did you notice any type of investor differences while raising money?
Each investor is focused on a different field, so, similar to the last answer, the conversation will be steered depending on where their interests lie. However, the majority of the investors we have spoken to, no matter their field of focus, knows someone that has been affected by either drug addiction or by mental health disorders, so this helped us greatly to resonate the need for a system like Nasolution.
What tips would you give founders entering fundraising?
Be prepared for and receptive to critical feedback from potential investors. You won’t have all the questions answered at the beginning, so be prepared as possible to clearly outline the problem and the market and how the business will be successful. Understand, however, that directions will change, so try to focus on investors that are completely interested in the mission and will support that no matter what.
We’d like to thank Nasolution for being a part of the Psychedelic Groundbreakers series. Stay tuned for weekly profiles on leaders in the psychedelic industry, and check out the Psychedelic Directory to learn more about Nasolution.
Would you like to participate in this series? Fill out this form and we’ll follow up with a review of your application.
