Dentist-founded company receives additional U.S. patent for its dental cartridge technology

Balanced Pharma has received notification from the United States Patent & Trademark Office on the issuance of an additional U.S. patent for the dentist-founded company's proprietary cartridge technology. The company believes its new technology will enable dentists to deliver less painful, faster-acting, and more reliable numbing injections using a standard dental cartridge and syringe.

“This patent enhances the value of the Balanced Pharma IP portfolio by adding a third layer of protection around our dental cartridge technology in the U.S. market,” says Balanced Pharma founder and CEO, Dr. Scott Keadle.

Balanced Pharma is a pharmaceutical company headquartered near Charlotte, North Carolina, 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 product’s buffered lidocaine/epinephrine formulation will be 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 a large, 2023 study¹ published in the British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery that is especially notable because of the large number of patients and statistical power of the results.

Balanced Pharma’s new drug candidate comes at a time when market research suggests that 9 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.²

“We’re proud to be a company founded by clinicians, working together to improve patient comfort.” adds Dr. Keadle.

References

1. “Effectiveness of buffered and non-buffered local anaesthetic in inferior alveolar nerve block: A randomised study”, M. Bala, A.O. Taiwo, A.A. Ibikunle, H.O. Olasoji, A.O. Sulaiman, B.C. Chukwuma, R.O. Braimah, B.O. Ile-Ogedengbe; Published in the British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, April 21, 2023; https://www.bjoms.com/article/S0266-4356(23)00108-0/fulltext

2. “58% of patients believe the injection is the worst part of the dental experience,” Olson Research Group, “Patient Dental Care Study Quantitative Report, Conducted for Balanced Pharma, May 7, 2021,” Fielding: March 30–April 23, 2021, total sample size: n=140 (includes 40 parents/caregivers);

“Over 90% of dentists report a desire for current anesthetics to be more reliable, less painful, or faster acting,” Olson Research Group, “Dentist Quantitative Report, Conducted for Balanced Pharma, August 13, 2021,” Fielding: June 18–July 19, 2021, total sample size: n=181;