Government awards million-pound funding for ready-to-use glucagon pen

A UK company, Arecor Ltd, has been awarded £1.05 million towards its development of a ready to use glucagon pen.
Glucagon can be a life-saving treatment for people with type 1 diabetes, or otherwise dependent on insulin. Glucagon is a hormone which raises blood glucose levels and can therefore quickly and safely bring people out of episodes of severe hypoglycemia. This can prevent people from going into coma and can, in extreme cases, prevent death from very low blood sugar levels.
Currently, glucagon is available as a powder which needs to have solution added in a process which can take a number of minutes, depending on how much experience someone has with using the glucagon kit.
Arecor are looking to address the preparation process by developing a ready to use liquid preparation that would not require mixing and therefore speed up the process and make the treatment process easier.
The government funding, that has been awarded to Arecorn, comes from the government’s Innovate UK funding competition which has awarded over £1.8 billion to innovative science projects since 2007.
Dr Sarah Howell, CEO of Arecor Limited, stated on receiving the award funding: “We are delighted to receive this prestigious award from Innovate UK which will support the acceleration of our proprietary glucagon rescue treatment towards the clinic and first-in-human phase 1 trials.
“Using Arecor’s technology, we have been able to solve the very significant and elusive formulation challenge of developing a stable liquid glucagon product that will enable us to deliver a ready-to-use pen to rescue a hypo more quickly and effectively.”
Arecor have been working with type 1 diabetes charity the JDRF and patient groups to ensure their pen meets the needs of people with diabetes.
As Dr Howell suggests, the company will use the funding to initiate human trials of the product.