By Emma Romney
LONDON (Reuters) – A group of North American companies that see potential in e-cigarette-like devices to ease migraines and respiratory conditions such as asthma face a long road to convincing health authorities and patients that their products could be the future of inhaled medicines.
Two companies, Qnovia and MIIST Therapeutics, have developed nebulizer-like devices based on technology used in existing medical nebulizers, which turn liquid medications into a fine mist.
Another company, Greentank, says it has developed a way to vaporize substances via a heating pad that addresses safety concerns with current e-cigarettes and may offer a better way to treat conditions like migraines.
Companies and experts say inhaling can relieve pain in seconds, with fewer side effects than pills, but their ambitions to sell e-cigarette-like devices into the medical field, amid growing concerns about their health effects, will be a tall order.
For now, Qnovia and MIIST will initially launch their products as prescription-only nicotine replacement therapies (NRT), while Greentank is initially targeting its heating chip for use in recreational cannabis and nicotine e-cigarettes.
The companies ultimately aim to see their devices able to deliver a wide range of medications, and Douglas Dunlap, Greentank’s chief commercial officer, cites migraine medications as an example.
The common way to manage migraine treatment is by taking a pill, which takes up to an hour to take effect and can include symptoms such as vomiting and dizziness.
“If we can shorten that, that would be a huge success for us,” said Dunlap, a former executive at e-cigarette maker JUUL, adding that e-cigarettes can deliver a hit within 60 seconds.
According to the World Health Organization, three billion people worldwide suffer from migraines. Hundreds of millions have conditions such as asthma or lung disease, which are treated with inhaled medications.
Drugmaker GSK alone generated nearly £7 billion ($8.9 billion) in revenue from generic respiratory drugs for conditions such as asthma and lung disease in 2023.
Health concerns
Existing inhaled drug delivery devices are impractical and difficult to operate, so people tend to use them incorrectly, said Federico Buonocore, a professor specialising in alternative pulmonary drug delivery at Kingston University in Britain.
He added that a design similar to e-cigarettes could solve such challenges.
Big tobacco companies have already tried to tap into this market, but have failed, their efforts fraught with distrust and opposition from health officials.
Last year, Philip Morris International (NYSE:PMI) dropped its goal of earning more than $1 billion in annual revenue by 2025 from its wellness and healthcare unit, which includes a business that makes asthma inhalers.
Chief Executive Jack Olzak said the company was “very optimistic about how the external environment … will be receptive to big tobacco” in the non-nicotine industry. An inhaled aspirin product developed by the unit was also deemed unsuccessful after a clinical trial last year.
Virginia-based Qnovia and California-based MIIST are pharmaceutical companies that are not affiliated with Big Tobacco, although some of their top executives come from the industry.
Qunovia CEO Brian Cogley, a former head of tobacco giant Altria, told Reuters the company plans to file drug applications in the United States soon and in the United Kingdom in 2026 for its device as a nicotine replacement therapy, and launch a clinical trial in September.
MIIST also needs to get regulatory approval. A phase 1 clinical trial found that its device can relieve cravings faster than other approved alternative treatments like patches and gum — which are notoriously ineffective at helping smokers quit.
Greentank, a Toronto-based company founded in 2015 to make vaping devices, will see the first cannabis vaporizer in the U.S. using its technology, which was launched by U.S. company Jaunty in September.
Greentank is currently looking for a pharmaceutical partner to support the development of its heating chip for drug delivery.
MIT founder Dalton Senor told Reuters he hopes the company’s device could one day be used to administer medications for things like pain and anxiety.
However, he said the main challenge is ensuring that devices like MIIST don’t get mixed with traditional e-cigarettes – an issue that raises growing health concerns.
Authorities such as the World Health Organization say e-cigarettes can produce harmful chemicals such as formaldehyde and heavy metals, and their long-term effects are uncertain.
Catherine Dockery, a venture capital investor and CEO of Vice Ventures, said her company backed Qnovia because its misting technology doesn’t use heat, a process that can lead to harmful emissions.
The Greentank uses heat – a fact that also means that some medications may not work with it.
Dunlap said Greentank is in the early stages of trying to identify suitable drugs for the technology, and tests show that its heating method does not produce any harmful emissions.
But many may remain skeptical.
Kingston University’s Bonokor has conducted research into the use of e-cigarettes as drug delivery devices.
“The first thing everyone said to me was, ‘It’s wrong to use this as a medical device,'” he said, adding that concerns included that it was inappropriate to prescribe it to children.
“It will be very difficult for the sector to break out of this stigma.”
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