Gareth Sheridan wants to “put manners” on the largest pharmaceutical companies in the US and the Irishman aims to build a multibillion-euro business in the process. The Nutriband founder wants to force change in the painkiller market by competing directly with the biggest players in the game.
His company, valued at $87 million (€84 million), has developed a system to change the way patches of painkillers, such as fentanyl and other opiates, work to reduce abuse and prevent risk of accidental exposure. The long and the short of his plan is making misusing these patches as unpleasant as possible.
Medically prescribed fentanyl is typically delivered with a patch, in the same way to how nicotine patches work for smokers. Abuse and misuse of these occurs when users chew on them to extract the drug faster or mix it into a tea.
Nutriband’s patches are designed to make people think twice about such a move. A coating mixing capsaicin, the component in chilli peppers that causes a burning sensation, and denatonium benzoate, the most bitter substance known to exist, is added to the patch to make them impossible to stomach, in the literal sense.
“We are tackling a complex issue,” says Sheridan. “We’re making pain medication inaccessible to those who use it incorrectly but making it available to those who need round-the-clock pain management.
“We’re running towards an issue that needs to be fixed, not eradicated. Pain medication has become difficult to prescribe because of the liability involved for the prescriber. The reality is that opiates are second to none when it comes to pain management.”
The vile concoction of Nutriband’s coating is designed to make the patches all but impossible to use in any manner other than how they are intended.
“Our goal is to make these products 99 per cent safer than what’s there. Nothing is ever going to be 100 per cent safer. All of the major routes of abuse are oral or nasal. People will chew a patch, smoke the contents of a patch, or even use it like a tea bag to make the fentanyl seep out into alcohol,” says Sheridan.
“We looked at the major routes of abuse and wanted to keep the approach simple. We decided to make the patch taste beyond unpleasant, we wanted to make it unbearable.”
Chewing, smoking, or brewing the patch involves encountering this vile cocktail immediately. Both ingredients, however, are food grade, meaning there is no risk of them causing harm to the user. If the patch is used correctly, the user won’t encounter those ingredients.
“Accidental exposure is also important. Children have picked up used fentanyl patches, chewed on them, and died from the exposure as a result. With our patch, the immediate reaction from a child if they put it in their mouth is to spit it out,” says Sheridan.
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“We’re starting with fentanyl but we’re working our way down the opiate family. We want to revolutionise the safety aspect of these products to make them acceptable again.”
The most surprising aspect of the company is that Sheridan’s background isn’t in the science space at all, let alone pharmaceuticals. He started Nutriband in his final year of a business and management degree in what is now Technological University Dublin in 2012.
“It was at the expense of my grades. My dad wears a patch for heart medication. I figured patch technology could be expanded. As I wrote my thesis, it felt more like a business plan,” he says.
“Initially, I was looking at supplement-type products. If it was going to expand, the US was where it had to go next. Instead of trying to raise expensive money early, we decided to take the company public in 2016.”
The business has grown largely through acquisition since, with Sheridan retaining an 18 per cent stake.
“We’re probably finished doing any raises that dilute shareholding. We’re turning down offers regularly. We see the value in the stock.”
Nutriband only has to go through a single-stage clinical trial to get US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, far faster than the normal three-stage process. As a result, the business expects to clear that hurdle this summer and be on the market next year.
“If we’re being conservative, our target is this year. The summer isn’t out of the question. We will get the benefits of a branded product without the costs and time normally associated with it,” he says.
“Q2 of next year or sooner is our target for launch. We are going to come in aggressively and we’re in a position to corner the market.”
Sheridan is bullish on the potential for Nutriband. While its current valuation is impressive, he’s thinking into the tens of billions in relatively short order. It’s a bold prediction and many in the sector would scoff at such ambition.
“We’re the only company in the world taking on that challenge right now and we have a multipleyear head start,” he says.
“There’s an opportunity for us to explore a mandate with the FDA. If we have something that does the same as products already on the market today but is proven to be safer, there is a precedent that the FDA could mandate abuse deterrent in that space and we could cannibalise that quickly.”
Sheridan believes the potential for Nutriband to expand quickly across the opiate space will enable that growth, with the second target being buprenorphine, which is used as an alternative to methadone.
The Dubliner is also not shy about how he views the existing giants in the painkiller market. He’s after their market share.
“They’re competitors. We’re coming in aggressively and to put manners on an industry that has ignored a major issue for a long time. I am baffled that the industry has let prescription rates drop so much without attempting a fix,” he says.
“Everybody’s afraid of lawsuits or the word opiate. We should be able to make them safe and available, not just eradicate them completely. The goal is to make this widely available worldwide.”
Hailing from Terenure in Dublin, Sheridan has based the company in Orlando, Florida although he currently resides in Salt Lake City, Utah, his wife’s home city. Sheridan and his family will move back to Dublin in the near future to prepare for the company’s expansion into European markets, he says.
“We’re in the process of moving back to Dublin. Expanding into Europe is on the forefront of our agenda and I’ll be leading up the Dublin base. We’re focused on the US market currently but the international expansion will come quickly.
“We’re looking at options to perhaps bring the company home. It’s in our future at some stage. Dublin is a great base to expand into Europe and beyond.”
