Rose C. Perri: Biotech Company That Focuses on Altering the Delivery Pathways for Well-known Drugs

EastGate Biotech Corp. is a biotech company that focuses on altering the delivery pathways for well-known drugs, currently administered only by injections, to non-invasive (oral or sublingual) routes.

We are developing a technology platform for enhanced drug delivery designed to provide alternative administration of known drugs with the goal of offering patient-friendly products to improve compliance and increase health benefits to fit today’s health-conscious lifestyles.

At the present time our technology focuses on the delivery of insulin via a liquid insulin mouth solution based on a proprietary composition.

We hope to expand the liquid insulin mouth rinse for Type 2 patients to other applications such as Animal Health and to treat Alzheimer’s Disease (known as Type 3 diabetes).

We believe our technology may also be applicable to the delivery of other active pharmaceutical ingredients that can create a robust product pipeline in the future.

Tell us about yourself?

This is not my first foray in the biotech world. I have been involved in other biotech companies in the past; one at which I spent over 15 years.

In each of those companies my role was in the management side. Start-up biotech companies are high risk and many do not survive past the 5 year mark.

I am grateful to have gained a lot of experience and gained the inner strength to live through the ups and downs that come with R&D as well as building a team with the same vision and work ethic.

If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

The game plan that you set for your company may have to change due to external reasons–such as a global pandemic.

It is wise to be open to options in order to survive and move your main developments slowly forward until the world markets catch up to demonstrate some normal state. Another piece of advice I would give myself is do not afraid to use some of the tools that younger generations are utilizing in order to get their products to market.

They are the future consumers and we should pay attention to their preferences as well.

What problem does your business solve?

Diabetes is an epidemic. There are over 600 million diabetics in the world and growing. Insulin is the safest and most effective treatment for diabetes to date. However, the fact that it is an injectable treatment has prevented it from being widely used.

As such diabetes patients–particularly Type 2 diabetes patients–normally take anti-diabetic pills; most of which have a timeframe within which they are effective.

Our liquid insulin mouth rinse will allow patients to incorporate insulin early into their treatment paradigm. The liquid insulin has the flexibility to be dose adjusted which lowers the risk of hypoglycemia.

Early introduction of a non-injectable insulin should result in a reduction of side effects caused by diabetes including strokes, heart attacks, amputations, kidney disfunction etc.. Our liquid insulin mouth rinse is not re-inventing the wheel it is optimizing it to allow widespread use.

What is the inspiration behind your business?

I truly believe that biotech executives look to find the next breakthrough technology or treatment that will change the lives of patients living with disease or facing serious medical issues.

It is very satisfying to know that a drug or product could extend one’s life or manage a chronic illness such as diabetes.

Insulin originates from Canada and as a Canadian company we would be proud to provide diabetic patients with the new and improved–or more so–a safe and effective non-injectable insulin product that will improve and manage their glucose levels for years and years to come.

What is your magic sauce?

EastGate Biotech’s intraoral insulin mouth solution is a water-like non-thick solution that contains regular human recombinant insulin.

A drug loaded mixed micellar emulsion is generated upon contact with the saliva in the mouth. Highly fluid and flexible droplets of the emulsion liquefy the mucosal lipids easing drug diffusion and delivery into the bloodstream allowing the product to do its job and manage glucose levels.

What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?

We have one goal in mind which is to make sure that this product is on the market in some facet within the next 5 years.

Whether we have patients using the product under a Patient Data Base Program within hospitals or medical institutions or whether we have a pharma partner market this product within a certain territory we want to make sure that the liquid is being incorporated into a number of diabetes patients within the next 5 years.

As long as it is impactful for a specific group open to using the product we believe we will start to see a positive impact on the disease.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

To date, we have gained support for this product more on the patient side than on the pharma side. Patients whose diabetes are not well controlled with today’s anti-diabetic pills understand the importance of taking insulin to better control their diabetes but fear facing multiple injections per day. So, in that respect diabetes patients truly “get” our product and would do anything to take it on a daily basis.

I think we are all familiar with the concept that until you live with a disease yourself you cannot understand the daily routines required to feel better and maintain a diligent and compliant lifestyle. We all want to have better and simpler options in that regard.

However, the marketplace has a very different viewpoint. There have been no successful non-injectable insulin products on the market. Even the top pharmas have failed to meet this goal.

Hence, the market sees this as a high risk investment. The way I see it the billions of dollars spent on hospitalizations due to the side effects of diabetes such as strokes, heart attacks, kidney disease, amputations are the TRUE high risk that we are all facing.

How do people get involved/buy into your vision?

I would like to stick to our grassroots support system for now. Let’s get diabetes patients requesting our product from their doctors, medical advisors etc.. We want to be able to demonstrate the effectiveness of our product on a small scale first and then get the word out there to other patients.

We are pleased that some small pharma marketing companies around the world understand this pathway to market and by growing a solid database and testimonials from patients who can actually use this product in a hospital or medical setting and expand the vision from there.