How This Tiny Microneedle Tech Could Explode Pharma Startup ArrayPatch Into a Billion-Dollar Empire Overnight
Have you ever stopped to wonder why something as tiny as a microneedle could completely rewrite the rulebook for medicine delivery? Well, Dr. Waleed Faisal and his sharp team at ArrayPatch, right out of Cork, are not just asking that question — they’re living it. Over a decade deep into crafting a microneedle system that literally delivers medicine by dissolving under your skin, they’re tackling one gnarly problem head-on: ineffective treatments for nail fungal infections. But hold on, this isn’t just another patch in the market; it’s a breakthrough “platform technology” that’s showing promise for everything from skin cancer to migraines. Imagine cranking up the dosage while shutting down side effects and skipping the surgery — sounds like sci-fi? Nope, it’s real science powered by pure medicine molded into microneedles. And the buzz? It’s catching the eye of big pharma, investors, and healthcare pros alike, all getting ready for what could be a game-changer by decade’s end. So, if you’re curious about how a simple patch could revolutionize treatment and why this journey is far from over, dive into the story of innovation, grit, and the future of healing. LEARN MORE
Dr Waleed Faisal and his ArrayPatch team in Cork have been making great strides in the development of microneedle technology. He tells George Morahan how the idea will be used to treat patients and why its potential offers tremendous possibilities
By the time ArrayPatch’s proprietary technology becomes available to the public, likely at the end of this decade, founder and chief executive Dr Waleed Faisal will have spent more than ten years developing the microneedle based drug delivery system.
Dr Faisal, who moved from Egypt to Cork to complete his PhD in Drug Formulation and Pharmaceutical Science 20 years ago, started researching microneedles at University College Cork (UCC) in 2018.
Together with Professor Abina Crean, he came up with the idea to produce a microneedle out of “pure medicine”.
The resulting product, DerMap, is a dissolvable microneedle patch that releases medication under the skin upon administration.
The initial research was funded by €1.34m from Enterprise Ireland and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme and the product has gone on to win Innovation of the Year at the 2022 Pharma Industry Awards as well as the 2023 IDEATE Ireland competition.
DerMap is not a new medicine or a medical device, but rather a ‘platform technology’ with a number of potential applications, primarily the treatment of nail fungal infections but potentially skin cancer, diabetes, migraines, psoriasis and hormone replacement therapy too.
The system uses existing medications, but in penetrating the skin and delivering higher doses it has proven more effective in early testing than current modes of delivery.
Animal trials for the nail fungal infection application of DerMap show that the level of medicine delivered using the system is 56 times higher than with oral and topical treatments, which Dr Faisal is confident will translate to a higher efficacy.
“The oral tablet has a success rate of 28 to 30 per cent. The topical formulation has a success rate of 8 to 12 per cent, which means they are actually not working that well,” he explains.
“Plus the oral tablet has a lot of side effects in the liver. People cannot use the medicine for more than two weeks, and the topical treatment is up to 18 months, so there is no real treatment in the market — and that’s where we come in.
“We talked with all the stakeholders, [such as] clinicians about the need in the market and they all confirm that the current medicines are very effective, but there is no good delivery system, so oral and topical is not working.
“We came up with the idea [of moving] it to a microneedle system, so we can penetrate the skin and deliver a higher dose. We targeted it to the nail matrix where the fungi resides to give better efficacy.
“We proved this with animal trials and now we take it for a human trial to see the efficacy compared to the current treatment.”
Microneedles are typically made of polymer (large chains of molecules) and excipients (inactive pharmaceutical ingredients), but increasing the level of excipients would cause the polymer to break down.
Producing the microneedle from the medicine being delivered removes the need for excipients and renders the difficult balancing act moot, while facilitating the delivery of higher doses.
In developing the product, Dr Faisal and Professor Crean applied heat and pressure to powdered medicine in order to melt it before shaping it into a microneedle using a micromould.
“We’re aiming to minimise or even eliminate polymers and excipients, instead making microneedles out of nearly pure active molecules. That way you get higher drug loading, faster dissolving and cleaner delivery compared to conventional approaches,” Dr Faisal says.
Dr Faisal and Professor Crean filed a patent for the technology with UCC in 2020 and they are still waiting for it to be granted.
ArrayPatch will have an exclusive licence to the patent, which will be moved to the company once the founders exit the company or sufficient payment is made to UCC.
In the US alone, there are 33 million people affected by nail fungal infections and the British Association of Dermatologists estimates that a quarter of people will be affected by such infections during their lifetime, rising to one in two among diabetics over the age of 60.
Diabetics are at particular risk as the infections can cause sepsis as well as bone and tissue damage.
“It starts as something simple, but it can get more painful and aggressive over time,” Dr Faisal says.
The market for nail fungal infection treatments will be worth an expected $6.2bn by 2027 and the markets for DerMap’s other applications are worth a combined $70bn.
ArrayPatch is the vehicle by which DerMap will be commercialised, taking advantage of the understandable interest from big pharma.
Led by Dr Faisal, the company’s leadership has been bolstered by significant business experience with the appointments of serial founder Darren Cunningham as chief financial officer, Ryan Bamsey (Innoture, Boots) as chief operating officer and Dr Tord Labuda (Alzinova, LEO Pharma) as chief strategy officer.
The spinout is in the process of raising €3m in seed funding and discussions are ongoing with three pharma companies about research grants to co-develop the technology and option agreements to licence or buy the rights in future.
So far six investors, including Lakeside Capital, Enterprise Ireland and DeepIE, have committed €2m, and Dr Faisal expects investment syndicates and venture capital groups to contribute the remaining €1m by the end of the year.
The funding will be used to cover early manufacturing costs and the first phase of human trials for the nail fungal infection application.
The trials are planned to take place in the first quarter of next year with 12 participants and the company has secured a manufacturing site partner in the US that specialises in dermatology and patches.
ArrayPatch is planning a Series A round of $8-10m in 2028 or 2029 for the second phase of human trials (135 patients) and large-scale manufacturing ahead of release.
Initially it will be a prescription product, but ultimately Dr Faisal wants to see it sold over the counter.
The spin-out company has also raised €235,000 in convertible loan notes this year, prior to opening the seed round.
Dr Faisal adds that money has been “a big challenge,” with the company having “limited” resources to make improvements to the technology while paying salaries.
Although ArrayPatch is responsible for trials and manufacturing, the pharma giants the company has engaged with (“the two main players in nail fungal infections”) will be responsible for commercialisation.
Dr Faisal believes final clearance from the Federal Drug Administration in the US and the European Medicines Agency will come in 2029 at the earliest, but he is “99 per cent positive” of the product’s efficacy at this time.
The company has been engaged with those regulators as well as the HPRA in Ireland and BPharm in Germany for the past three years, and they have helped to design the human trials.
Normally it would take six to nine years for a new medication to clear all the regulatory hurdles, but as the medication being used in DerMap is pre-approved, the expected timeline of three to four years for gathering, interpreting, submitting and resubmitting the data will be “very quick” by comparison.

Progress is being made with the other applications.
Animal trials have been completed for the skin cancer application, laboratory work is being completed for the diabetes application, and a stability study is being completed for the migraine molecule.
As with the fungal nail infections, Dr Faisal believes DerMap could transform treatment for other diseases, potentially removing the need for surgery in skin cancer cases and providing relief within 30-60 minutes for people su ering with migraines.
Photo: Dr Ziad Sartawi, Scientist at ArrayPatch Ltd, and Dr Waleed Faisal, CEO and Founder of ArrayPatch Ltd, pictured at University College Cork. Picture: Michael O’Sullivan / OSM PHOTO
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