Twins start firm to help allergy sufferers

Eric, left, and twin brother Evan Edwards hold their invention "Intelliject EpiCard," a medicine dispenser used to treat allegies.

Millions of people at risk of severe allergic reactions to certain foods and bee stings rely on pen-size syringes that contain a life-saving dose of the drug epinephrine administered in an emergency.

As lifelong allergy sufferers, twin brothers Eric S. Edwards and Evan T. Edwards, co-founders of the Richmond-based specialty pharmaceutical firm Intelliject Inc., keep their epinephrine auto-injectors close by.

Accidental ingestion of peanuts, tree nuts and shellfish can cause them to go into anaphylactic shock, a potentially fatal allergic reaction. Tongue and throat tissues swell, making breathing difficult. A person may break out in hives and blood pressure may drop, causing fainting.

Injecting the drug epinephrine into the thigh quickly reverses the symptoms.

As grateful as the brothers are to have the existing injector technology available, from their own experiences they've concluded there has to be a better injector system.

The 29-year-old brothers and their management team have built Intelliject around the goal of creating a more intuitive, compact and safer emergency epinephrine delivery system.

Their result: a credit-card-size device that "talks" users through administering epinephrine.