Vivera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is pleased to announce the allowance of its dose-controlled drug delivery device patent for ZICOH®.
Designed to better facilitate patient-provider interactions and play a role in reducing prescription opioid abuse, the ZICOH® device and its software are designed to enhance prescription compliance from manufacturer to patient.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), over 500,000 people have died from opioid abuse and overdose. It is estimated over 81,000 people have died of overdose-related deaths during the pandemic alone. Deaths caused by opioid addiction and overdose are on the rise. The CDC has estimated that prescription opioid abuse carries an economic cost of over $78.5 billion dollars per year for treatment, prevention, and enforcement.
"The ZICOH® technology will be the backbone of ensuring that manufacturers, medical providers, pharmacists, patients and regulators are on the same page when it comes to managing prescription drug use and preventing abuse," said Dr. Mehdi Hatamian, Chief Scientific Advisor for Vivera Pharmaceuticals. "With 153 million prescriptions written for painkillers in 2019, the potential for prescription abuse is incredibly high. Our goal was to design a closed-loop system from manufacturer to provider to caregiver that holds everyone accountable for patient safety."
The ZICOH® device is designed to utilize advanced biometric technology to ensure only authorized access to the medication within the specialized cartridge is granted. With a software backbone that allows for real-time monitoring of patient compliance with provider orders, the ZICOH® ecosystem can be used with any prescription medication. Each uniquely identified cartridge is tied to the patient at the pharmacy, mitigating the potential for prescription abuse.
"We wanted to create a device that supports our mission of saving lives," says Paul Edalat, CEO of Vivera Pharmaceuticals. "With a culture of over prescribing opioid-based pain killers, we need to start taking action before addiction sets in. Industry efforts need to focus on managing patient care, not costly litigation where funds are not seen for decades, or spending limited local resources on unsuccessfully hunting pill mills. We need to make it harder for these drugs to be abused by making the systems designed to protect patients more efficient. Vivera is looking forward to collaborating with Medical Device and Pharmaceutical manufacturers as we collectively work to reduce opioid addiction."
Novel medical technologies create synergistic opportunities from API manufacturing to final prescription. With the path clear for its first set of patents for ZICOH®, Vivera has begun working with industry experts to develop software infrastructure and proprietary, patented, cartridges for additional forms of medication delivery.
For more information, visit www.viverapharmaceuticals.com
