Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech

Startup Creates Printer That Customizes Medicine for Pets

September 5, 2018 By Tom Coyne, Purdue University

A startup is using Purdue University-patented technology to produce precise, customized medicine for pets.

Pinpoint Pharma has created a printer that is faster than traditional methods of making customized medicine. The company is among three startups receiving assistance from the Purdue Foundry and eight startups from Indiana that will be featured Sept. 5-7 at the TechCrunch Disrupt SF Conference in San Francisco.

Pinpoint Pharma is a precision compounding pharmacy for veterinarians, ensuring that the medicine tailored to each individual animal’s needs is easier for pet owners to give and for pets to take, which optimizes clinical outcomes.

Arun Giridhar, Pinpoint Pharma’s chief executive officer, and three faculty members of Purdue’s Department of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy and Davidson School of Chemical Engineering founded Pinpoint Pharma two years ago, and have been joined recently by Angela Demaree, a nationally known veterinarian, who received her DVM from Purdue. The goal was to create a device like an inkjet printer that could precisely dispense pharmaceuticals to meet a growing need for customized medication for pets instead of a one-size-fits-all approach generally taken.

“When a pet has a specific requirement as determined by their vet, we can dispense the exact amounts and ratios of active ingredients needed for a pill, in a form and flavor that the specific pet will love,” Giridhar said.

For pets, the one-size-fits-all method doesn’t always work.

“Our medicine printer allows veterinarians to be very precise in serving an animal as an individual rather than as the average of a population.”

Giridhar said Pinpoint Pharma’s medicine printer has two advantages over other methods used to make customized drug products: it is faster and more precise.

While it can take more than an hour to produce a batch of 100 to 300 capsules, Pinpoint Pharma’s printer cuts the total time per patient to 10 minutes, including cleanup, and is flexible on the product form suited to the individual pet.

“We can make about one dose every second, or even faster,” Giridhar said.

 

The printer also is more precise, using a tracking mechanism to record how many drops of medicine are dispensed in each dose and the volume of each drop, in real time. Typically making a batch of pills can have variances in potency between doses, Giridhar said.

The printer also helps make potent medications that have a narrow therapeutic index, where small differences in dose concentration can lead to serious therapeutic failures or adverse drug reactions.

“In such cases, it becomes important to dose very precisely,” Giridhar said.

Giridhar said what sets Pinpoint Pharma apart is that the team has more experience in this field and the company has worked with a wide variety of medications.

Earlier this year, the startup was chosen by gener8tor, a nationally ranked accelerator based in Milwaukee, for its gBETA program, a seven-week accelerator for early-stage companies with local roots. Pinpoint Pharma was one of five startups selected from 52 applicants for the inaugural Indiana cohort; gener8tor also operates programs in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Minnesota. The program provides mentors, advice on business models and suggestions on ways to grow. It also gives the startups office space and up to $1 million in deals and perks from vendors.

“Our experience with gBETA has helped Pinpoint Pharma move forward with our business model and develop new relationships with customers, mentors and investors,” Giridhar said.

Arun Giridhar is one of the co-founders of Pinpoint Pharma, a precision compounding pharmacy for veterinarians. Pinpoint Pharma has created a printer that is faster than traditional methods of making customized medicine that is tailored to each individual animal’s needs. (Purdue Research Foundation image/Oren Darling)

Related Articles Read More >

A series of before-and-after brain scans showing improvement in long COVID patients after hyperbaric oxygen therapy
Long COVID study finds potential in hyperbaric oxygen therapy
Rockwell Experience Center opens at Dean Kamen’s Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute
What is microscale 3D printing? Lessons learned from Mayo Clinic
cleveland-clinic-disruptors-2021
The top 10 medical disruptors of 2021

DeviceTalks Weekly.

August 12, 2022
DTW – Medtronic’s Mauri brings years of patient care to top clinical, regulatory, scientific post
See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

Enewsletter Subscriptions

Enewsletter Subscriptions

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Medical Design Sourcing
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to E-newsletter
  • Attend our Monthly Webinars
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media LLC. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech