October 18, 2021 – Olfax Medical, has been awarded a $54K grant from the NIH funded, DRIVEN Accelerator Hub to support development of Relaspen – a rapid, non-addictive migraine treatment for individuals of all ages.
DRIVEN Acceleration Awards recognize early-stage companies developing novel medical technologies that directly improve patient outcomes and quality of life. The non-dilutive award follows Olfax Medical’s successful completion of the DRIVEN Partnership Program, which culminated in a competitive pitch event in front of a committee comprised exclusively of investors (representing over $10B in assets under management), buy-side business development leaders (cumulative market cap exceeding $700B), and scientists from 10 leading US research institutions.
“The support provided by DRIVEN has been an incredible learning experience that has strengthened every aspect of our company,” said Jonathan Beckwith, Olfax Medical CEO. “The deep technical, business, and clinical expertise within DRIVEN provided an invaluable resource to critically test our commercialization strategy, and has set us up to confidently move forward as we prepare to raise additional Seed funding.”
The DRIVEN Acceleration Award will be used primarily to further develop Olfax Medical’s core delivery technology, which uniquely deposits medication to the vasculature in the upper-posterior nasal cavity. In addition to funding, Olfax Medical will have continued access to DRIVEN commercialization resources along with in-kind service provided by their multi-disciplinary support team.
“Migraine is highly prevalent, has a significant effect on an individual’s quality of life, and the unmet medical need remains high,” said Jake Reder, Celdara Medical CEO and Principal Investigator of the DRIVEN Accelerator Hub. “Olfax Medical’s development is an excellent example of entrepreneurial innovation, which leverages and expands upon existing treatment options through a combination of clinical innovation, technical rigor, and user-centered design.”
About Olfax Medical
Olfax Medical is a start-up product development and commercialization company specializing in nasally administered therapeutics. Our mission is to help patients avoid the harmful and addictive side effects of systemic pharmaceuticals by revolutionizing nasal drug delivery. Founded in 2017, our experienced team of engineers, clinical care specialists, and clinical researchers are creating novel, self-administered therapeutic treatments that utilize the nerve networks of the turbinates and the olfactory and trigeminal nerves, to absorb neurologically active medications directly from the nose to the brain, bypassing the blood-brain barrier. Further information about Olfax Medical is available at olfaxmedical.com.
About the DRIVEN Accelerator Hub
The DRIVEN Accelerator Hub is an NIH-funded consortium led by Celdara Medical, LLC and Simbex, and includes partnerships with the leading research institutions in the Northeast IDeA region (Brown, Dartmouth, Maine Medical Center, MDI Biological Laboratory, University of Delaware, University of New Hampshire, University of Rhode Island, and the University of Vermont). The mission of the DRIVEN Accelerator Hub is to create quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and save lives by 1) Increasing the number of quality medical startups 2) Decreasing their time to market and 3) Increasing their probability of success. DRIVEN provides tailored consulting to select entrepreneurs through the DRIVEN Partnership Program. The Program culminates in a presentation to the DRIVEN External Advisory Committee, comprised of leading investors and in-licensing business development professionals, and the potential for seed funding. For more information regarding the partnership program, email info@drivenacceleratorhub.com. DRIVEN has developed several online educational resources that can be found at: drivenacceleratorhub.com
DRIVEN is generously supported by NIGMS grant UT2 GM130176.
Acknowledgement
Acceleration Award funding was made available through NIH award 5UT2GM130176-03 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.