Christchurch-based medtech startup Zuuka is preparing to commercialise a world-first wearable drug-delivery platform.
The platform aims to address growing global concerns around long-term adherence to treatments for diabetes, obesity, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
The technology was developed by Dr Jake Campbell (Te Rarawa) as part of a post-doctoral research team at the University of Canterbury, which focused on low-power wearable drug delivery systems.
Dr Campbell says many of the biggest barriers to long-term treatment adherence are not medical, but practical and psychological.
“The same barriers affecting insulin pump adoption, including complexity, stigma and treatment burden, increasingly exist across a wide range of injectable therapies.
“A huge amount of effort goes into developing medicines, but treatments only work if people can realistically use them every day and manage them long term. The most expensive medicine in the world is the one the patient never ends up taking,” he says.
NZ medtech export opportunity
Zuuka co-founder and chief executive Jamie Cairns says the platform is designed to support next-generation injectable medicines for chronic diseases and neurological conditions, as well as automated insulin delivery systems that respond in real time to changing glucose levels.
The company is raising capital to fund prototype development and regulatory submissions for entry into the US. This follows a wave of recent FDA clearances extending automated insulin pump therapy to type 2 diabetes – a change expected to bring millions of additional patients into the market for wearable insulin delivery devices.
Cairns says the funding will support prototype development, user trials and early-stage commercialisation ahead of a planned US launch in 2029. It will also enable new engineering and product development hires in Christchurch as the company moves through prototyping and regulatory phases.
He adds that growing competition among pharmaceutical companies is increasing demand for wearable delivery systems designed to improve treatment adherence and long-term patient retention.
Intuitive, not intrusive
The US is Zuuka’s primary commercial opportunity, with around two million Americans already using insulin and rapidly growing demand for wearable delivery systems across obesity and chronic disease treatment.
Cairns says a key design intent was to reduce the operational complexity and visibility that often discourage long-term use of wearable medical devices.
“People don’t want to walk around feeling like they’re attached to medical equipment. Existing systems can be intrusive, operationally complex and highly visible in daily life. We wanted to develop something that becomes almost invisible.
“A lot of wearable healthcare technology has historically been engineered around the technology itself rather than the user experience.
“High discontinuation rates seen across some injectable therapies highlight how important usability, comfort and day-to-day wearability are becoming for long-term patient adherence,” he says.
“Our focus has been designing something that is intuitive, user-centric and capable of integrating much more seamlessly into everyday life.”
Cut waste and improve care
The company’s proprietary micro-actuator platform replaces traditional motor-driven wearable delivery systems with a significantly lower-power platform that reduces charging requirements, device size and operating complexity.
Dr Campbell says the actuator platform has enabled the development of a miniaturised wearable device around half the size of some current market-leading patch pumps, while allowing it to operate for more than a year without regular charging.
The system uses a reusable pump body with replaceable infusion components rather than fully disposable products, which Dr Campbell says could reduce medical waste by up to 99% compared with some disposable patch pump systems currently on the market.
He adds that a person diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at a young age could potentially use and discard more than 7,000 disposable pumps over their lifetime, with each device carrying a similar environmental footprint to around 18,000 disposable coffee cups.
The platform is also intended to integrate with continuous glucose monitoring systems, smartphone apps and cloud-based clinician platforms. Cairns says wearable healthcare technologies are increasingly being incorporated into AI-driven monitoring systems as healthcare shifts toward more proactive and remote models of care.
“These technologies need to work together seamlessly for patients, clinicians and caregivers,” he says.
Greater potential ahead
Zuuka says the first commercial application for the platform is diabetes management, where poor adherence to insulin treatment remains a major global challenge.
More than 300,000 New Zealanders are estimated to be living with diabetes, while industry data cited by Cairns suggests around 18% of insulin pump users eventually discontinue pumps and return to injections because devices are too cumbersome or difficult to manage long term.
Poor insulin adherence is associated with significantly higher rates of hospitalisation and long-term complications, including kidney disease, blindness, amputations and cardiovascular disease.
Meanwhile, some existing insulin pump systems can require more than three hours of one-on-one clinician training for new users, placing additional pressure on already stretched healthcare services.
Dr Campbell says the same wearable platform could eventually be adapted for a wide range of therapies increasingly moving into home-based treatment models.
“We see potential applications in Parkinson’s therapies, pulmonary arterial hypertension treatments and emerging Alzheimer’s drugs transitioning from intravenous to subcutaneous delivery, where treatment delivered at home could significantly reduce healthcare costs and hospital demand.”
Make a meaningful difference
Christchurch paediatric endocrinologist professor Martin de Bock says healthcare systems globally are increasingly focused on technologies that simplify long-term disease management and improve treatment adherence.
“The long-term challenge with chronic disease management is not simply access to medicines, but supporting people to manage treatment consistently over many years.
“Anything that reduces complexity and helps people better integrate treatment into normal daily life has the potential to improve long-term management outcomes.”
Diabetes New Zealand chief executive Heather Verry says treatment fatigue and long-term adherence remain significant challenges for many people living with chronic disease.
“Managing conditions like diabetes is relentless for many people because it requires constant monitoring, decision-making and treatment management every day.
“Technology that can reduce complexity and make treatment easier to maintain over the long term has the potential to make a meaningful difference to quality of life and long-term health outcomes.”
Source link
