What You Should Know:
– Indomo, a therapeutics company focused on developing at-home prescription dermatology treatments, today emerged from stealth with $25M in total funding led by leading investors including Atomic, Foresite Capital, and Polaris Partners.
– The company introduced the ClearPen™, an investigational at-home injectable therapy in development for the treatment of inflammatory acne lesions.
Solving the Inflammatory Acne Access Crisis
Acne is the most common skin condition in the U.S., affecting 50 million Americans annually. A significant portion of these sufferers, 20 million people, struggle specifically with inflammatory acne. Despite intralesional injections of triamcinolone acetonide (a corticosteroid) being a first-line treatment recommended by the American Academy of Dermatology, only about 1 million people regularly receive this treatment.
The root cause of this access issue is the severe dermatologist shortage, with only one dermatologist available for every 28,000 Americans. This barrier means that by the time patients finally get seen, the painful lesion has often already scarred. Indomo aims to change this by pursuing an at-home approach intended to empower patients with timely access to care.
Building on the Science of Self-Injection
Indomo is building off scientific progress that has brought clinical care into the home for conditions ranging from diabetes (insulin) to fertility. The ClearPen is designed to be an intradermal self-injection technology, pairing a proprietary self-injection device and microneedle with a modernized formulation of triamcinolone acetonide to enable consistent dosing for at-home administration. Triamcinolone acetonide is a corticosteroid backed by 50+ years of clinical use and a strong safety profile.
“ClearPen will be the first big innovation in acne care since Accutane,” said Jack Abraham, CEO of Atomic and co-founder of Indomo and Hims & Hers. “For too long, people have had to choose between ineffective surface treatments or waiting weeks for a dermatologist. ClearPen will provide patients instant access to a corticosteroid microneedle injection right in their bathroom cabinet.”.
Phase 2 Clinical Trials
The $25M in funding will be used to support the company’s Phase 2 clinical trials and the ongoing development of its device platform. The executive team includes leaders with deep expertise in medical devices, consumer health, and skincare, including former leaders from Medtronic and Starface.
