West makes minority investment in vaccine & biologics delivery tech developer
Latch Medical was spun out of University College Dublin by its co-founders Ronan Byrne and Nicky Bertollo in 2019: pioneering a new approach to intradermal delivery. Its Pharma Latch technology offers two delivery device platforms that allow for intradermal delivery of vaccines and biologics with rapid, consistent dosing.
The technology anchors securely to the skin and uses either hollow or coated microneedles to deliver and disperse vaccine and biologics payloads. Its advantage, according to the company, is that it offers a low-cost platform that can facilitate higher payloads than microneedle technologies developed in the past. In addition, minimal training for clinicians is required.
Pennsylvania-headquartered West Pharmaceutical Services specializes in injectable solutions and services, generating $2.83bn in net sales in 2021. It says its investment in Latch Medical is testament to its strategy to make startup investments in the medical device space to create and advance tech that allows care to be delivered more effectively and efficiently.
"West's investment in Latch Medical advances our leadership in innovation through a dedicated focus on the needs of patients," said Robert Segura, Vice President, Corporate Development, West Pharmaceutical Services, as the investment was announced last week. "The methods by which medicines are delivered to patients continue to evolve to meet their desire for ease-of-use and effectiveness. Latch Medical's innovative intradermal-delivery technology fits well into this strategy."
West joins Latch Medical's existing investors Atlantic Bridge and Enterprise Ireland. West will take a minority ownership stake in Latch Medical.
"We have put our extensive experience of skin biomechanics and understanding of the challenges of intradermal delivery into the development of Pharma Latch. It is a novel technology that can replace traditional injections and infusions and look to realize the potential of intradermal delivery," said Ronan Byrne, CEO, Latch. "With this investment from West, we can rapidly increase the impact of our technology."
