WOMEN-LED STARTUPS
Medicine-saving Nanodropper makes history in Minnesota Cup win The student-led startup wants to save patients from wasted eye drops.
B Y JIM H A MM ERAN D MA NA G ING ED ITOR
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he Minnesota Cup awarded its grand prize for innovative entrepreneurs to a student-led startup for the first time. Medical device developer Nanodropper took home top honors from the awards ceremony, held Sept. 20 at the University of Minnesota. “We have created an eyedrop bottle adaptor that will save billions in medication waste, one drop at a time,” Nanodropper CEO Allisa Song said. Song, an MD candidate at the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota, launched the company with three other founders — Chief Operating Officer Elias Baker, Chief Commercialization Officer Mackenzie Andrews and Chief Scientific Officer Jennifer Steger — after learning that drug companies make eye drops too large to be fully absorbed, and that smaller drops are more efficient and just as efficacious. Rochester-based Nanodropper reduces drop size from 40 microliters to 10 44
Medical Design & Outsourcing
10 • 2021
The Nanodropper
Photo courtesy of Nanodropper
"We decided that patients deserve better. ... Our competitors have made smaller droplets, yes, but Nanodropper is the only solution that both reduces the droplet size and the cost of the medication."
microliters (what Song calls the “ideal-size drop”) to extend the life of each bottle of medicated eye drops three or four times, saving hundreds or thousands of dollars per year on a single prescription. “We decided that patients deserve better. … Our competitors have made smaller droplets, yes, but Nanodropper is the only solution that both reduces the droplet size and the cost of the medication,” Song said. The startup has already secured seed funding from Golden Seeds and Rochester Area Economic Development Inc. (RAEDI), has its product in more than 250 eye clinics and landed a $500,000 contract with the U.S. Air Force. Nanodropper won $25,000 for winning the Minnesota Cup Student Division and the $50,000 grand prize as the overall winner. Minnesota Cup does not take an equity stake in exchange for the prizes. “We trust them to invest that money in their business in any way they choose.” Minnesota Cup Director Jessica Berg said. It’s the first time in Minnesota Cup’s www.medicaldesignandoutsourcing.com
17 seasons that a student-led startup has won the overall competition. This year’s contest drew nearly 2,000 earlystage companies earning less than $1 million in revenue. Aimee Garza’s CoraVie Medical, which is developing a subcutaneous continuous blood pressure monitor for hypertension, won the competition’s LifeScience/Health IT division.
