Meter Health advances research on potential treatment for chronic hiccups, launches advanced fundraising round
Meter Health announced Wednesday the nationwide sales launch of Hiccupops, a lollipop for occasional hiccups, as the Hartford, Conn. biotech firm simultaneously continues to advance its drug development program for chronic, debilitating hiccups. The pill development program, called MH-712, seeks to address severe hiccups that can be prompted by chemotherapy and other medical conditions and interventions.
The debut of Hiccupops – online via hiccupops.com and in 864 CVS HealthHUB locations – comes as Meter Health also launches a Series Seed fundraising round to support retail expansion and the firm’s MH-712 experimental pill program. Hiccupops are currently available in an Original Citrus flavor in stores and at hiccupops.com in quantities of 10 for $9.99 and five for $5.99 and online in Sour Apple flavor with identical prices and quantities.
Hiccupops are the first scientific, data-driven solution to the age-old problem of hiccups. Research by Mayo Clinic investigators suggests Hiccupops can halt occasional hiccups in seconds for many sufferers. Hiccupops are specially formulated to stop occasional hiccups with a blend of ingredients that resets the body’s hiccup response. An estimated 1.5 million individuals struggle with clinically significant or chronic hiccups, which can last for weeks and be devastating to one’s quality of life.
Chronic hiccups are often associated with drug treatments such as chemotherapy and anesthesia and more than 130 different medical conditions, including GERD, Parkinson’s disease and stroke. Although occasional hiccups are often a minor annoyance, clinically significant hiccups can last for extended periods – breaking ribs, rupturing sutures and causing panic attacks and depression.
Hiccupops’ origins date to 2012, when a then-12-year-old M.J. Kievman, Meter Health’s co-founder and CEO, experienced a three-month bout of hiccups. She briefly sold her first version of Hiccupops directly to consumers in 2016 before discontinuing it to focus on creating a therapeutic treatment for clinically significant hiccups.
In 2017, Kievman formed Meter Health with scientific co-founder Bartholomew Bacak, a hiccups researcher who holds an M.D. and a Ph.D., and serves as an ear, nose and throat doctor with the University of Rochester Medical Center. Kievman recently reformulated and relaunched Hiccupops in response to continued consumer interest and demand, but Meter Health has separately continued advancing a potential pill for chronic hiccups.
“Too often, hiccups are mischaracterized and misunderstood as a minor inconvenience with few solutions beyond superstitions and home remedies,” Kievman said. “At Meter Health, we recognize that hiccups can be debilitating, and we are swiftly advancing treatments for those who suffer with this condition. We’re proud to launch Hiccupops, a category-creating consumer product for occasional hiccups, and to advance a clinical intervention for chronic cases, which can be unbearable and dangerous.”
“Hiccupops provide a safe, effective way to stop hiccups, which can cause hours of unnecessary discomfort even in ordinary cases,” Bacak said. “Meter Health also is continuing the development of a medicine for clinically significant hiccups. We’re seeking to end chronic hiccups and give people back their lives.”
Meter Health’s team subscribes to the phylogenetic or evolutionary hypothesis for hiccups – the idea that the condition is a neurological phenomenon that originates in the brainstem, not a respiratory or a GI problem. Irritated nerves in the throat, mouth or abdomen send signals that make the brain revert to a vestigial, gill-like breathing pattern used by humans’ amphibian ancestors. The hiccups breathing pattern includes involuntary diaphragm spasms that draw air into the lungs as the glottis, a flap of cartilage in the back of the throat, shuts. Air hitting the closed glottis creates the “hic” sound associated with hiccups.
About Meter Health
Meter Health is a privately held, Hartford, Conn. biotechnology firm that builds awareness, advances science and delivers life-improving solutions for the full spectrum of hiccups. Meter Health sells a national consumer health product (Hiccupops) for occasional hiccups via hiccupops.com and in select CVS HealthHUB stores, while leading a development program for a potential therapeutic (MH-712) to treat clinically-significant hiccups. Meter Health’s team has decades of professional, clinical and scientific expertise in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, and years of teaching and research experience at world-class academic institutions, including Yale, Duke and the Mayo Clinic.
