Australian start-up company Acrux Ltd. has developed a new method of administering hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Acrux creators say the new method, which uses a spray similar to an asthma inhaler, would eliminate the need for patches, which are expensive and can cause skin irritations, or pills, which can induce nausea.
“The quest has long been to find a simple way of getting drugs into the bloodstream without irritating the skin or causing other side-effects throughout the human body,” said Acrux project manager Tim Morgan, who developed the new spray while seeking a Ph.D. at Monash University’s Victorian College of Pharmacy. Chief Executive Ross Dobinson boasts that the spray will be “dramatically cheaper, at least as effective, and far more cosmetically attractive” than other methods of administering HRT.
The new spray would deliver hormones transdermally (through the skin). The spray would penetrate the skin and form a “patch” within it which would then release hormones through the bloodstream over time. Accrux executives hope to introduce their product to markets in the U.S., Europe, and Australia within the next 3 1/2 years. The company is also working on sprays to treat anxiety, chronic pain, male hormone replacement therapy, and erectile dysfunction.
