Chrono Therapeutics has managed to secure $32 million in Series A financing round, led by Canaan Partners and 5AM Ventures. Additional participants in the financing were Fountain Healthcare Partners, Mayo Clinic and GE Ventures. As part of the deal, Wende Hutton, general partner with Canaan Partners; Jim Young of 5AM Ventures; and Aidan King of Fountain will join Chrono’s board of directors.

The company plans to use the funds to complete product development and clinical studies for its SmartStop programmable transdermal drug delivery system and real-time behavioral support program for smoking cessation.

SmartStop is a wearable device that offers programmable, transdermal nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) in combination with real-time behavioral support.“Smoking costs people their health and eventually their lives, but current technologies like nicotine gums and patches are not effective in enabling smokers to quit permanently because they do not address the cyclical nature of nicotine cravings and offer little to no behavioral support,” said Alan Levy, Ph.D., CEO of Chrono. “We believe we have a very compelling technology that will solve many of the problems that make smoking cessation so difficult.”

SmartStop is a wearable device that offers programmable, transdermal nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) in combination with real-time behavioral support. It is designed to automatically vary nicotine levels throughout the day to match each individual’s nicotine craving patterns. The device wirelessly communicates with the SmartStop digital support program, providing real-time guidance to help smokers cope with cravings as well as a means for promoting compliance to the NRT and overall quit process.

Smoking kills more than 400,000 Americans each year, and is responsible for approximately one in five deaths in the US. Of the 45 million smokers in the US, 70% report that they want to quit, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and 23 million try to quit each year.