Miist Therapeutics, an innovative drug delivery company based in Alameda, California, has secured $7 million in seed funding to advance its breakthrough inhaled medicine platform. The funding round, led by Refactor Capital, includes participation from 1517 Fund, Freeflow Ventures, Entrepreneur First, and California Innovation Fund.
The company's groundbreaking technology represents a significant advancement in drug delivery speed and efficiency. At the core of Miist's innovation is a proprietary inhaler system that generates sterile aqueous drug particles small enough to penetrate the peripheral lung, where absorption into the bloodstream occurs nearly instantaneously.
Revolutionary Drug Delivery Technology
The technology, developed under the leadership of CTO Jeff Schuster, Ph.D., a Berkeley Physics graduate and aerosol drug delivery expert, utilizes vibration rather than heat to create drug particles. The system produces aerosols composed solely of water as a carrier and the active pharmaceutical ingredient. When these particles reach the peripheral lung, they cross the blood-air barrier - which is remarkably thin at just 1/100th the width of a human hair - enabling rapid drug absorption.
Clinical validation has demonstrated that this approach achieves peak plasma drug levels in less than 30 seconds, approximately 100 times faster than conventional oral medications. This remarkable speed was evidenced in the Phase 1 trial of MST-01, their smoking cessation candidate, where patients experienced 92% symptom relief within just 2 minutes of administration.
Clinical Programs and Market Potential
Miist is currently advancing two lead programs:
- MST-01 for smoking addiction treatment
- MST-02 for acute migraine relief
"So many therapeutic areas today are dominated by oral treatments that work far slower than patients want," explains Dalton Signor, CEO and co-founder of Miist Therapeutics. "A great example is migraine: when someone is suffering through debilitating migraine symptoms, they don't want to wait an hour for their pill to kick in. Their #1 priority is getting fast relief and that's what we're uniquely positioned to deliver."
Investment Perspective
The technology's potential has attracted significant investor interest. Zal Bilimoria, General Partner at Refactor Capital, expressed strong confidence in Miist's approach: "The Miist team has executed across every phase of development, from early technical R&D through human clinical studies. With these Phase 1 trial results validating the rapid action of their peripheral lung delivery and multiple active programs already in development, there is a real opportunity here to set a new treatment standard for many conditions."
The platform's versatility suggests potential applications across multiple therapeutic areas where rapid onset of action is crucial. The successful Phase 1 results, combined with the scalable nature of the technology, position Miist Therapeutics to potentially revolutionize treatment paradigms in conditions requiring urgent symptom relief.
