Date: Mar 03, 2015 Source: mobilhealthnews.com (
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chrono therapeutics betterChrono Therapeutics, a Hayward, California-based company working on a new wearable for smoking cessation and drug delivery, has received an investment from seed fund Rock Health. According to MedCity News, Rock Health has contributed $100,000. This brings the company's total funding to about $32.1 million.
Chrono disclosed its most recent round in June 2014. It included contributions from Canaan Partners, 5 am Ventures, Fountain Healthcare Partners, and two strategic investors: GE Ventures and the Mayo Clinic.
The company's flagship product SmartStop, which has been in development since 2004 and was previously funded by a combination of NIH grants and the founders' personal income, is a wearable device that would smartly deliver nicotine to the wearer at strategic times.
The device can be worn on the wrist, arm, or as an adhesive patch. A smoker can wear the device and it would deliver progressively smaller doses of a nicotine over a 10-week period, much like existing nicotine replacement therapy patches. However, rather than releasing the drug continuously throughout the day, the patch will deliver doses at key times, like first thing in the morning and after meals, when smokers' cravings are most likely to occur. The objective is to not just alleviate cravings, but actually prevent them.
The wearable also connects to a smartphone and delivers information via Bluetooth about whether the user has been wearing the device and injecting the drug. That information, in turn, feeds into an app-based behavior change program designed to help smokers cope with cravings.
The company plans to put the funds from Rock Health toward clinical trials of SmartStop. MedCity News added that Chrono Therapeutics aims to receive an FDA clearance for its device by 2017.
When MobiHealthNews spoke to Chrono CEO Alan Levy in June, he said that the platform could also be used for delivery of various other drugs for conditions including Parkinson's, asthma, and ADHD.
