Nanodropper Awarded a Phase 2 SBIR Contract With US Air Force

Nanodropper, the maker of an eyedrop bottle adaptor that reduces eyedrop size, has been named the recipient of a phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract with the United States Air Force.

The Nanodropper adaptor was inspired by a 2017 ProPublica article detailing just how much medication waste there is in America, specifically eyedrops that are too big. The adaptor, an FDA-listed, Class I medical device, reduces the size of a typical eyedrop by more than 60 percent, stretching the life of an eyedrop bottle by several months. The adaptor easily screws on over the tip of most eyedrop bottles.

“Our phase 2 contract with the Air Force will help us develop an extension of our current solution to oversized eyedrops to meet the needs of the Air Force patient population, and beyond,” said Mackenzie Andrews, Nanodropper’s Chief Commercialization Officer.

The SBIR program is run by AFWERX, a community of Air Force innovators who act as a catalyst for Air Force engagement across industry, academia, and non-traditional contributors to create transformative opportunities and foster an Air Force culture of innovation. The phase 2 contract builds upon Nanodropper’s phase I SBIR contract, which totaled more than $49,000 to help the Air Force advance technology innovations for service members. Phase 2 contracts can be worth up to $1.5 million in additional funding.

Nanodropper was founded by Allisa Song, Mackenzie Andrews, Dr. Jennifer Steger, and Elias Baker. Ms. Song, Nanodropper’s CEO, read the ProPublica article that inspired the adaptor and recruited the rest of the team along the way. They would go on to win more than 20 awards from institutions such as the National Inventors Hall of Fame, University of Washington, and Johns Hopkins University. Nanodropper has been highlighted by the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Mayo Clinic, Seattle Times, GeekWire and many other publications, including their original inspiration: ProPublica.