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Dr. Edmund Pribitkin watched his teenage daughter rush around as she got ready for a school dance. All she was taking along was a very small clutch purse.
“And I said to her as she was making her way out, ‘Well I hope you have your EpiPen in there,’” Pribitkin said, adding that his daughter replied “Dad,” with exasperation.
Pribitkin was concerned. At the time, his daughter had a bad nut allergy. She had a prescription for EpiPens, which is a brand of an autoinjector device that delivers epinephrine, a medication that can stop and reverse anaphylaxis in emergency situations.
Pribitkin, who is an otolaryngologist at Jefferson Health, knew just how serious these situations can get, so he insisted that she should take her injector.
“I said, ‘You can’t go there. I mean, you’ve had episodes in the past where you’ve had to go to the emergency room, so you have to take your EpiPen with you,’” he recalled. “And she said, ‘Absolutely not. There’s only one thing that’s going in my clutch purse, and that’s my phone.’”
The EpiPen and its cylindrical case is a bit longer than a smart phone, and about an inch thick. There just wasn’t room for both.
Pribitkin lost that battle, but thankfully, nothing bad happened that night. However, the experience got him thinking. One thing his daughter was always taking along, everywhere, was her phone.
“And so, I looked at how an autoinjector works and how it could be put on the back of a phone,” he said.
That was about 10 years ago. Now, Pribitkin is closer to making his idea a reality. Designs and prototypes for SemPresto, an epinephrine autoinjector device that can be attached to the back of most smartphones using magnetic technology, are in their final stages. The company is focusing on the next steps, which involve small-batch manufacturing and testing in people.
Partnering biotechnology experts and investors say they’re hopeful that a device like this could make epinephrine more easily accessible to people who need it, especially when it can help prevent a deadly situation.
“What matters is that it’s a lifesaving, or life-preserving, medication that you need to have with you when you need it,” Pribitkin said. “And that’s the premise of what we’re doing. It’s always there. That’s the whole reason behind this.”