Entrega emerges from Enlight Biosciences

12-Jan-2011 - Last updated on 12-Jan-2011 at 12:25 GMT

Enlight Biosciences, a Boston, US-based drug discovery and development technologies company, has formed the new company, Entrega, which focuses on oral drug delivery techniques.

The new company will use its spatially-directed proprietary drug delivery platform to develop orally-available versions of biologic drugs - including insulin and antibodies – that are manufactured by Englight’s pharmaceutical partners and currently require injection.

In doing this, Entrega will receive an undisclosed sum of upfront and milestone payments from its partners. Additionally, the new business will retain total independence and full rights to its platform technology.

Baruch Harris, vp of Strategy and Operations for Enlight, told in-PharmaTechnologist: “Enlight Biosciences is a unique entrepreneurial collaboration to discover and develop platform technologies that will have a transformational impact on drug discovery and development.

“Entrega was formed to develop and commercialise a technology that will allow drug developers to make orally bioavailable formulations of drugs,” he added.

Represents $129bn

Harris pointed out that biologic drugs currently provide over $120bn in annual revenues, and they are used to address serious healthcare needs in areas such as cancer, autoimmune diseases and metabolic disease.

Despite the apparent need for biologics, most require delivery by injection which can present challenges in compliance, convenience and effectiveness.

“The ability to deliver biologics orally would address a significantly unmet need for patients and allow much easier treatment paradigms for many conditions that need to be treated with biologics,” said Harris, who claims Entrega’s drug delivery technology is capable of delivering a range of peptides and proteins by oral administration.

Strong demand for oral formulations

Although there is a strong demand for oral formulations of biologic drugs, from patients, healthcare providers and drug developers, Harris admits “scientific and technical challenges have been so great that most people in the industry are understandably cautious about the success of any one technology.”

Confident however that Entrega’s oral drug delivery technology will prove a hit with drug makers, Harris said it may also benefit CMOs who will be able to participate in clinical studies of the new drugs which make use of the technology.

Entrega says its short term goal is to validate and develop its oral drug technology to a point where the scientific and clinical data supporting it are strong enough to justify moving ahead to the clinic.

“In the long term, we hope that Entrega will become one of the leading oral formulations companies in the world, and that its technology will be a critical component to a multitude of important drugs that benefit patients everywhere,” said Harris.

Entrega’s founder, Enlight Biosciences, was created in 2008 and backed by Pfizer, Merck, Eli Lilly and PureTech Ventures. Since then, the company has forged collaboration with Novartis, Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories.