What you should know:
– Untameda therapeutics company focused on developing at-home prescription dermatology treatments, emerged today from nowhere with $25 million in total funding led by leading investors including Atomic, Forest Capitaland Polaris Partners.
– The company introduced ClearPen™, an investigational home injectable therapy in development for the treatment of inflammatory acne lesions.
Solving the inflammatory acne access crisis
Acne is the most common skin condition in the US, affecting 50 million Americans annually. A significant portion of these sufferers, 20 million people, specifically struggle with inflammatory acne. Although intralesional injections of triamcinolone acetonide (a corticosteroid) are a first-line treatment recommended by the American Academy of Dermatology, only about 1 million people receive this treatment regularly.
The root cause of this access problem is the severe shortage of dermatologists, with only one dermatologist available for every 28,000 Americans. This barrier means that when patients are finally seen, the painful injury has often already left scars. Indomo aims to change this by applying a home-based approach aimed at providing patients with timely access to care.
Harnessing the science of self-injection
Indomo is leveraging scientific progress that has brought clinical care into the home for conditions ranging from diabetes (insulin) to fertility. ClearPen is designed to be an intradermal self-injection technology, combining a patented auto-injection device and microneedle with a modernized triamcinolone acetonide formulation to enable consistent dosing for home administration. Triamcinolone acetonide is a corticosteroid backed by more than 50 years of clinical use and a strong safety profile.
“ClearPen will be the first major innovation in acne care since Accutane,” said Jack Abraham, CEO of Atomic and co-founder of Indomo and Hims & Hers. “For too long, people have had to choose between ineffective superficial treatments or waiting weeks to see a dermatologist. ClearPen will provide patients with instant access to a corticosteroid microneedle injection right in their bathroom cabinet.”
Phase 2 clinical trials
The $25 million in funding will be used to support the company’s Phase 2 clinical trials and the continued development of its device platform. The executive team includes leaders with extensive experience in medical devices, consumer health and skin care, including former leaders at Medtronic and Starface.
