Oxford, UK-based Glide Technologies has raised £3.2 million to help it progress development of a novel solid dose formulation of osteoporosis drug teriparatide (parathyroid hormone).

The company said it will use the funds to complete Phase I clinical trials of the product during 2017, following on from a successful preclinical proof-of-concept study, in which the solid dose formulation achieved a statistically similar pharmacokinetic profile to the most widely used clinical dose of the marketed liquid product, Forteo/Forsteo.

Glide has discovered that the use of certain excipients and hardeners allows stable solid dose formulation of many drugs and vaccines that are normally injected in liquid form. To administer these novel formulations, the firm has developed a hand-held 'solid dose injector'.

The patented internal mechanism of the SDI responds to the slight rise in pressure so created by ejecting the drug dose and pushing it into the subcutaneous layer of the skin, and the firm says that research it has carried out show that volunteers prefer drug delivery by SDI to injection by needle and syringe.

Dr Mark Carnegie-Brown, Glide Technologies' chief executive, said the new fundraising "enables us to progress the clinical development of our pipeline as we move towards our goal of creating a patient-centric delivery platform integrating formulation science and device engineering".

The firm says the SDI "has the potential to improve compliance in patients self-administering long term therapy. It is simple to use and there is no needle disposal problem".

It's pipeline of therapeutic products currently includes octreotide, teriparatide (PTH 1-34) and exenatide, a GLP-1 agonist targeting Type II Diabetes.