Easier life for patients with fewer and smaller pills
COMPANY PORTRAIT: Did you ever wonder why some tablets need to be so big? Well, many drugs are extremely hard for the body to absorb because they simply do not dissolve sufficiently in the gastrointestinal tract. To counteract this, drugmakers often load their tablets with a larger dose in order to achieve a therapeutic effect. This, in turn, increases tablet size and/or numbers. The innovation district Copenhagen-based Start-up Zerion Pharma has developed a technology that makes almost any drug more soluble. This makes it easier for the human body to absorb. The technology, with the name Dispersome®, takes advantage of the unique properties of the food protein Beta-lactoglobulin originating from whey. By Jes Andersen.
More soluble drugs good for planet, patient and performance
Almost all drugmakers struggle with poor solubility for the majority of their drugs. If a drug doesn’t dissolve, the body can’t absorb it. For some medicines, the body absorbs as little as five percent or even less. The undissolved rest of the drug passes through the intestine “unused” and is eventually flushed down the toilet. Hence, any improvement in the solubility of a drug comes with several advantages, says the company CEO, Ole Wiborg.
Our technology is beneficial for patients as well as the planet. When the amount of drug absorbed by the body increases, we need to add less drug to the tablets to obtain the same effect. Our technology also allows adding very high amounts of a drug to each tablet. In this way, both the dose, the number of tablets, and the tablet size are reduced. Almost like a Kinder egg. In some cases, reducing the drug dose may potentially result in fewer side effects. Taken together, patients are more likely to take them and stick to their dosing regimen, which overall results in a better treatment. Besides helping the patients, reducing the drug dose also means that the pharmaceutical industry does not need to chemically synthesize as much of the drug for their products, which reduces their chemical footprint.”, says Ole Wiborg, CEO & Co-Founder of Zerion Pharma.
Selling solution to established drugmakers
Zerion is a spin-out from Innovation District Copenhagen-partner University of Copenhagen and is based on a decade of research from co-founder and CSO Korbinian Löbmann, who discovered together with co-workers at the university that drugs become highly soluble when spray-dried together with whey proteins. Since then, the company has strengthened the technology by adding additional patent families to the original university patent and has to date attracted over 60 million DKK in investments. It now has 15 staff members employed, most of them in research and development functions.
One of our most important early milestones was the first time a top-20 pharma company decided to partner with us to get access to our technology. Since then, we have entered five more of these partnerships. In 2025 we hope to land one or two more of these deals”: Ole Wiborg, CEO & Co-Founder, Zerion Pharma.
Cheese by-product safe and efficient
A selling point for Zerion is that their technology is based on a natural protein. The company does have competitors who improve drug solubility, but these typically rely on the use of synthetic compounds. Whey proteins are found in milk and are a by-product of cheese-making, so humans have been consuming them for over 8.000 years.
We have found that other proteins can aid solubility, but our whey-protein BLG just happens to be better. As an added benefit, the local dairy industry is strong in Denmark, and we get our BLG in an extremely high quality through our partner Arla Foods Ingredients”: Ole Wiborg, CEO & Co-Founder, Zerion Pharma.
Location good for recruitment
Zerion has its headquarters in the Innovation District Copenhagen- partner Symbion in Copenhagen, Østerbro. With staff from 10 countries, Ole Wiborg has found that the central location in Copenhagen aids the company’s recruitment process. By 2030, he expects Zerion to be profitable and increase its technology offering with yet more new technologies, making Zerion a powerhouse within the field of pharmaceutical formulation and drug delivery.
About Innovation District Copenhagen
Innovation District Copenhagen is a world-class innovation district where you can transform your bright ideas into growth, jobs, and global solutions.
- Co-locate with University of Copenhagen, University Hospital Rigshospitalet, University College Copenhagen (KP) and 500 innovative companies.
- Co-create with 40,000 researchers, staff and students.
- Collaborate to develop new solutions to societal challenges.
- Find a job with leading academic institutions and deep-tech companies.
Learn more about the Innovation District Copenhagen organisation.