Wilbur de Kruijf was one of the first employees at Medspray. He worked at Medspray from 2002 to 2020, establishing pharmaceutical applications of the Medspray nozzle technology. Since 2021 he is CTO/ General Manager of Resyca, a joint venture of Medspray and Recipharm.
What was your role at Medspray?
I was responsible for the inhalation projects, based on Medspray’s nozzle technology. This included the Ecomyst projects with Aeropump, ADI projects with Pharmaero and the development of Pulmospray for COVID therapies.
How did Resyca originate?
When you are developing soft mist inhaler devices for customers, you have to invest in a device platform. If you would let your customers do the investment, you would end up just making their product on their line and you would have to start all over with every new customer. So, for the syringe-based inhalers, Medspray had to find an external investor for tens of millions to build the device and manufacturing platforms. Recipharm was scouting for a soft mist inhaler device technology and they recently acquired Bespak, who currently manufactures pMDI and DPI type inhalers. Recipharm and Medspray started talking about a possible collaboration right before the COVID19 pandemic hit. I am very grateful that we were able to pull this through these confusing times and completed the deal at the start of 2021.
What do you want to achieve with Resyca?
Change the life of patients, one breath at the time. With our pre filled syringe inhaler, PFSI®, we want to become the leading soft mist inhaler platform for biologics. We now see the rise of several new bio technologies such as mRNA therapies, also for inhalation. We have found with some early-stage customers that we are able to nebulize large doses of delicate biologic formulations without degeneration. Our lung dose is very high, so we can reduce therapies to an acceptable number of inhalations from a handheld, pocket size device. My short-term dream is that one of our COVID therapies that are currently in the clinic with our Pulmospray device, is successful at curing hospital patients and prevent them from having to move to the ICU.
What can we expect from Resyca in the upcoming weeks?
We just launched our brand, logo and website. We are preparing lots of material to share on the site, such as scientific articles, our capabilities within the Recipharm Group and performance data sheets for the different devices. I hope that we will be able to announce a few business deals with new customers. And once face to face events like trade shows and congresses are allowed again, we will be there to present our company and products.
Are there any specific experiences from your time at Medspray that contribute to your current role in Resyca?
Most of what I know about inhalation and medical devices, I learned during my time at Medspray. I started in 2006 as their third employee and have been in contact with all the different aspects of the business, including writing grants, developing inhaler devices and setting up and doing aerosol testing, visiting congresses, business development, you name it. With Resyca, I had to do some fast learning on financial reporting, on being accountable for the results as well. I am getting used to it, though. My most valuable asset for Resyca is without any doubt my network. Despite the pandemic travel ban, we have been able to find customers for Resyca in my personal network. They believe in us and want to test their pharmaceutical products in our soft mist inhalers.
More information about Resyca? Visit their brand new website at www.resyca.com
