Under the terms of the agreement, Entrega will receive $5 million in equity and research funding from Lilly to investigate the application of Entrega’s peptide delivery technology to certain Lilly products and therapeutic candidates.
This initial agreement does not grant Lilly a development or commercialisation license to the Entrega technology.
“We are excited to work with the innovative team at Entrega,” said Divakar Ramakrishnan, VP of Drug Delivery and Device R&D at Lilly.
“Their approach is novel and complements our broader efforts in oral macromolecule delivery.”
The vast majority of biologic drugs (including peptides, proteins and other macromolecules) are currently administered by injection, which can present challenges for healthcare delivery and compliance with treatment regimes.
Oral administration thus represents an ideal delivery approach for this increasingly large class of therapies reshaping many areas of medicine.
Entrega’s technology platform is a unique approach to oral delivery, which uses a proprietary, customisable hydrogel dosage form to control local fluid microenvironments in the GI tract to both enhance absorption and reduce the variability of drug exposure.
“Entrega has used a rigorous scientific approach to generate new insights into one of the most challenging problems in drug delivery. Our proof-of-concept data demonstrates successful delivery of peptides in large animals,” said Dr Robert Langer, Chairman of Entrega’s Scientific Advisory Board, non-executive Board member of PureTech Health and Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
“We are excited to work together with Lilly, who is an experienced collaborator in this important area of peptide delivery.”
