08 June 2023

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New patent: Less pain, less wait at dental office?

Balanced Pharma fills need for less painful, fast-acting, more reliable dental injections

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The United States Patent & Trademark Office has granted Balanced Pharma, Inc. (BPI) a second patent for its cartridge technology, which enables the long-sought ability to deliver acid-free local anesthetics in a standard dental cartridge. According to a May 25 news release, the company said its new cartridge will enable dentists to administer numbing injections that are less painful, fast-acting, and more reliable.

Balanced Pharma is a pharmaceutical company developing technology to make local anesthetic injections more comfortable for patients and more efficient for healthcare providers. BPI-001, the company's flagship new drug candidate, is a local anesthetic intended specifically for the dental market and will be supplied in a standard dental cartridge to provide a seamless replacement for existing products, with no new training, equipment, or protocols required.

The proposed investigational product's buffered lidocaine/epinephrine formulation is free from the acid normally present in local anesthetics.

A large body of research shows that removing the acid from local anesthetics produces faster onset, less injection pain and increased reliability, including an April 2023 study published in the British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery that is notable because of the large number of patients involved in the study and statistical power of the results.

Balanced Pharma's new drug candidate comes at a time when market research suggests that nine out of 10 dentists would prefer a better anesthetic, and more than half of patients surveyed said the injection is the worst part of the dental experience.

BPI's CEO Dr. Scott Keadle said in the news release that the company commissioned Olson Research Group to survey dentists and dental patients across the U.S.

"It was hard to tell who is more excited about this product — patients or dentists," he said. 

More than 150 dentists and other providers participated in early funding rounds to help capitalize Balanced Pharma.

Keadle said the company was founded by practicing clinicians, working to deliver a product to provide patients more comfort.

"We knew if we could provide acid-free anesthetic in a standard cartridge, that would be a huge win for providers and patients, and we're well-poised to deliver on that promise," he said. 

About Balanced Pharma, Inc.

Balanced Pharma, Inc. (BPI) is a pharmaceutical company based in Cornelius, North Carolina. BPI intends to reduce injection pain, speed the onset of anesthesia, and increase the success rate of local anesthetic injections by developing and seeking FDA drug approval for a pH-balanced formulation of lidocaine with epinephrine, the most common local anesthetic in dental and medical procedures.

BPI's products are currently in development. They have not been approved by FDA and are not available for marketing and sale in the U.S.