A fast-acting nasal spray NASA crafted to fight motion sickness for astronauts will be turned into a commercial product under a Space Act Agreement the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston signed with an Irvine, Calif.-based company called Epiomed Therapeutics Inc., NASA said in an Oct. 12 press release.
NASA’s spray formulation of the drug — which is known as intranasal scopolamine, or INSCOP — has been shown through testing on astronauts to work faster and more reliably than the oral form of the drug.
“NASA and Epiomed will work closely together on further development of INSCOP to optimize therapeutic efficiency for both acute and chronic treatment of motion sickness which can be used by NASA, the Department of Defense and world travelers on land, in the air and on the seas,” Lakshima Putcha, developer of treatment strategy at Johnson, said in a statement.
Under the agreement, Epiomed will formulate the drug and NASA and Epiomed will collaborate on clinical trials related to Federal Drug Administration requirements, the press release said.
