HS Design's novel design for a Multiparticulate Dispensing Device for multiparticulate drug formulations secured the Innovation Prize at the BIOMEDevice Boston conference and expo.

The Multiparticulate Dispensing Device from HS Design won the Innovation Prize at BIOMEDevice Boston this week. The Gladstone, NJ-based design firm developed the delivery device for use with multiparticulate drug formulations, enabling a new medication form factor to be effectively administered.

Pfizer and the Institute for Pediatric Innovation worked together to create a technology for solid multiparticulate drug reformulation, intended to make medication easier to deliver to children in rural settings within developing nations. The multiparticulate formulation makes the drug easier to store, doesn't require water for administration, and reduces the strong taste of a drug.

This new formulation required a different drug delivery system to ensure accurate dosing. Tor Alden, a principal of HS Design, told tour attendees that the dispensing device was designed to consider accuracy, protection of the drug, and usability.

"Multiparticulates offer an important alternative that could help ease the administration of pediatric therapies," HS Design wrote in its submission. The device "features a protective bottle, which stores the multiparticulates, and a syringe for dosing. This system is used similarly to existing liquid oral syringes and vials," the firm explained.

Innovation Prize Tour participants at BIOMEDevice Boston, New England's largest medtech event, selected the device as the winner.

The dispensing device design, which resulted from an open challenge from the Institute of Pediatric Innovation and Pfizer, won an important accolade in that competition. HS Design's innovation was one of two entries chosen as a winner for a $50,000 grant during that challenge.

Other finalists for the BIOMEDevice Boston Innovation Prize included the QTA141 Micro-Reaction Torque Sensor from FUTEK Advance Sensor Technology (Irvine, CA), the ZEDeco leak testing device from ZELTWANGER Leak Testing & Automation LP (North Charleston, SC), the LD20 single-use liquid flow sensor from Sensirion (Westlake Village, CA), and the Prime 95B Scientific CMOS camera from Photometrics (Tucson, AZ). Qmed readers voted these five finalists onto the Innovation Prize tour from a larger pool of entrants.

Marie Thibault is the managing editor at MD+DI. Reach her at [email protected] and on Twitter @MedTechMarie.

[Image courtesy of HS DESIGN]