A BITTER PILL

Ed Maliski knew there had to be a better way. On a mission trip to Kenya, Ed watched as doctors tried to save a young child with cerebral malaria. Medicines that would’ve helped weren’t available, and efforts to stabilize the toddler were unsuccessful. The heartbreaking experience is one that inspired the next phase of his career. “No parent should have to go through this,” Ed said. “I can’t just sit here and do nothing. So, we started a venture to try to help these children and make it easier for them to take their medicine.”

That venture is Oak Therapeutics. Ed, a Ph.D. who serves as CEO and CSO, and his team are focused on delivering medicines through oral dissolvable strips—imagine a Listerine strip. Oak Therapeutics incorporates medicines into dissolvable strips, a much friendlier mechanism for delivering treatments than swallowing pills or drinking elixirs. While the focus is on creating pediatric-friendly medicines, the dissolvable strip technology can potentially help all kinds of patients.

“Many people have difficulty swallowing pills for a whole variety of reasons,” said Sally Maliski, Ph.D., RN, FAAN. Sally, who recently retired as dean of the KU School of Nursing and now serves as Oak’s vice president of healthcare relations, imagines a host of applicable uses for patients in a coma or hospice, for example. As a mother, she understands the challenges of getting kids to take medication. “They don’t like to take pills. The elixirs taste awful. It can be a downright struggle. The ordeal of taking oral medications could be much improved,” she said.

In fact, how medicine is delivered can impact whether a patient takes it. Multiple studies show that up to 70% of community patients and 20% of aged-care residents reportedly skip taking medications because of their inability to swallow them. And skipping medications leads to poor disease management and, potentially, death. It can also lead to patients trying to modify medications to swallow them. Between 10 and 59% of people self-reported changing medicines – like crushing up pills – before taking them, which can increase the risk of adverse reactions and medicinal misadventures.

BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS

So far, the team has created strips with medicines for tuberculosis, an HIV combination treatment, and the antibiotic Amoxicillin. The technologies they’ve developed over the past five years allow the team to do things with prescription drugs that others have found difficult or impossible. “We have proven that we can do time release,” said Zachary Nicolay, senior research scientist. “We’ve done test strips with caffeine where we have an immediate release. We also have an extended-release profile of the caffeine, so you never dip down or drop.”

A product on the market right now showcases the ability of slow-release technology. The team was approached by a dental surgeon in Canada who wanted to help his patients undergoing cancer treatment. Chemotherapy and radiation can heavily impact saliva glands, causing dry mouth and leading to all kinds of dental issues. Xerostrip can provide up to eight hours of relief from dry mouth, which is especially helpful overnight while trying to sleep. “People weren’t getting their sleep. It was interrupted by their dry mouth,” Ed said. “There’s a lot of good feedback coming from people. There’s a certain satisfaction knowing that you helped someone improve the quality of their life.”

A dissolvable strip might even save lives, especially in locations without quick access to pill or liquid medications. “It’s very shelf stable. It’s very easy to transport. There are things we can do, like printing, that makes it more counterfeit-resistant,” Sally said. The team also takes other hurdles, like access to water, into account. “To have to mix powders with water can be a difficulty. Besides the ones we experience in the Western world, these additional barriers are much more of a problem,” she added. “The Oak team is just entirely committed and passionate about making a difference in health and well-being.”

Perks of the Park

Oak Therapeutics makes its home in a shared lab at KU Innovation Park, a place that Ed describes as very collaborative. He said people want to work together, and that helps companies fill knowledge gaps. Another asset is being across the street from the University of Kansas, and the Oak team has created relationships with faculty, adding yet another resource to help move the company forward. “We have done a lot in a little space,” Ed said. “It’s just a perfect environment to grow personally in this business.”