Dry mouth, due to a reduction/absence of salivary flow/lubricity, affects at least 10 million people in the UK, predominantly elders. Largely driven by age-related chronic/neurogenerative diseases and polypharmacy, oral dryness significantly increases the risk of dental caries, periodontal diseases, candidiasis, oral ulceration, and dysphagia - all of which adversely impact the nutritional status and quality of life of elderly people. Numerous salivary replacers are commercially available, but none offers long-lasting relief due to their poor lubrication properties, thus forcing sufferers to use mouth spray repeatedly all day long to be able to eat. Subsequent malnutrition, which affects 1.3 million over-65s, results in a £7.3 billion annual loss.
in Project Aqualub, we have recently patented an innovative, highly lubricating saliva substitute for dry mouth sufferers, which offers 95% more effective lubrication and a 50% longer relief period than currently marketed saliva-replacing products. Besides technical development, we have demonstrated up-scaling manufacturing feasibility, analytical testing and regulatory compliance and developed a robust business model co-creating with patients understanding the revenue generation route.
Our novel lubricant will overcome the bottleneck of the sub-optimal performance of marketed aqueous lubricants, and will surely contribute to addressing the long-standing dry mouth issues faced by sufferers and ageing population in general.
