Cyprumed‘s Oral Delivery Technology Advances to Clinical Stage as MSD Initiates Phase I Trial

  • The Phase I clinical trial will evaluate a proprietary drug candidate formulated using Cyprumed’s oral tablet technology, marking the first Cyprumed technology program to enter human clinical development
  • The milestone triggers a payment to Cyprumed under the companies’ existing collaboration agreement

Innsbruck, Austria, September 29, 2026 – Cyprumed GmbH, a dedicated oral drug delivery company specializing in innovative oral peptide formulations, today announced that MSD (tradename of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., USA) has initiated a Phase I clinical trial of one of its proprietary drug candidates formulated using Cyprumed’s licensed oral drug delivery technology. The start of the study represents Cyprumed’s first technology to enter human clinical development and triggers a milestone payment from MSD.

The Phase I study follows the two companies’ Non-Exclusive License and Option Agreement, announced in April 2025, to develop oral formulations of MSD’s peptides using Cyprumed’s innovative drug delivery technology. Under the terms of the agreement, Cyprumed is eligible to receive up to $493 million in upfront, development, regulatory and net sales milestones associated with products developed under the collaboration.

Florian Föger, Ph.D., CEO of Cyprumed, commented: “The start of this first clinical trial is an important milestone for Cyprumed and a strong validation of our technology. Our goal is not only to enable oral delivery of peptides, but also to overcome key challenges associated with oral administration, including the impact of food on drug absorption. This could give patients greater flexibility in when and what they eat, while potentially providing more consistent drug exposure. We believe this could be particularly meaningful for people living with chronic diseases who need to take medication every day.”

Martin Werle, Ph.D., COO of Cyprumed, added: “Our tablet technology is designed to combine strong oral bioavailability for peptides with a practical and scalable formulation approach. Beyond enabling differentiated product performance, the platform relies on well-characterized pharmaceutical excipients. This provides a strong foundation from both a safety and regulatory perspective, while also supporting robust manufacturability and scalability. Together, these attributes can help reduce development complexity and support efficient pharmaceutical and clinical development.”

About Cyprumed GmbH

Cyprumed is a drug delivery technology company based in Innsbruck, Austria. The company focuses on developing technology platforms for the oral administration of therapeutic peptides, including GLP-1 analogues, macrocycles and mini-proteins. Cyprumed’s proprietary delivery platforms feature innovative tablet formulations that offer superior oral bioavailability and build on already approved pharmaceutical excipients, thus improving scalability, cost-efficiency and regulatory compliance. Cyprumed aims to transform peptide therapeutics by providing easy to manufacture, patient-friendly oral dosage forms. For more information, please visit www.cyprumed.net and follow us on LinkedIn.

Contacts

Cyprumed GmbH
Florian Föger, CEO
info@cyprumed.net

Media Inquiries

MC Services AG
Dr. Cora Kaiser, Dr. Johanna Kobler
+49 89 210 2280
cyprumed@mc-services.eu

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