Cyprumed: changing biodelivery
Cyprumed was founded in Austria in 2015, with the overarching objective to change the biodelivery of macromolecules. In particular, the peroral delivery of peptides has been in the main focus since the start of the business activities. The oral delivery of amino acid based macromolecules has been a problem for academic and corporate researchers for decades. Low bioavailability after oral peptide drug administration can be attributed mainly to proteolytic degradation of the drugs in the gastro-intestinal tract and the low permeability, caused by the often hydrophilic nature and size of peptides. However, the progress in large scale peptide production leading to a strong drop in production costs on the one hand and significant advances in oral peptide formulation on the other hand has opened the opportunity to develop commercially viable oral peptide drug products.
Business activities and unique selling proposition
Cyprumed is a drug delivery company with a main focus on oral peptide delivery. The operational set-up is designed to enable the target-orientated and lean development and optimization of its proprietary drug delivery technology. Cyprumed is neither developing novel peptides, nor is Cyprumed aiming to be engaged in the in-house clinical development of oral drug products for off-patent peptides. When it comes to developing novel, best-in-class peptides, we rely on the expertise of global pharma collaboration partners. What we bring to the table is a highly effective, cost-efficient, easy to scale up and manufacture proprietary drug delivery platform with a very favorable regulatory and safety profile. These features, together with the advantage of minimizing the negative food impact, makes the Cyprumed technology a unique formulation solution for the treatment of chronic diseases. Cyprumed is actively engaging in feasibility studies with pharma partners and is offering its delivery platform for in-licensing.
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The Cyprumed delivery technology is based on the interplay in four distinct phases
Protection from gastric milieu and food interaction
In the first phase, the innovative Cyprumed delivery technology not only protects against gastric acid, but also prevents negative food impact. This distinguishes the Cyprumed oral delivery technology from current gastric and classical enteric technologies.
Intestinal delivery to the target absorption site
During the second phase, the drug is delivered to and released at the target absorption site. Delivery of the drug to the respective intestinal segment is achieved via an innovative coating technology. Further, the delivery technology is designed to ensure the prolonged co-release of the drug and excipients in close proximity to the intestinal mucosa.
Enabling drug absorbability in the intestinal environment
In the third phase, Cyprumed uses excipients to ensure that the drug is present in the gastrointestinal tract in a stable, absorbable form, by tackling issues such as enzymatic degradation, solubility and drug aggregation.
Innovative technology to enable systemic drug uptake
Finally, in the fourth phase, the drug is absorbed from the intestinal lumen into the systemic circulation system via the use of an effective permeation enhancement system.
Key advantages of the Cyprumed technology
Efficacy
Proof of concept with various peptides, proteins and antibodies in large animals. Oral bioavailability improvement factor compared to state of the art oral formulation technologies of 10-100 fold.
IPR
Several patents filed, first patents granted. Positive F.T.O. Assessement for key patents.
Regulatory
Key excipients are GRAS/FDA inactive ingredients with USP/EP monographs.
FMC
Low cost excipients, multiple suppliers, easy to scale up and produce under GMP.
Shelf life
Storage stability at room temperature confirmed.
Manufacturing
Manufacturing via state of the art dry powder formulation processing, simple to scale-up and produce under GMP.
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Oral peptide delivery experts in the management team
Dr. Florian Föger, CEO
Florian Föger is the founder of Cyprumed GmbH and the inventor of its next generation drug delivery technology. Previously, Florian Föger was Director of Oral Formulation Research at Novo Nordisk A/S in Denmark. He is the inventor of more than 10 patent applications in the field of oral peptide delivery and author of 17 peer reviewed research articles in the oral delivery field. Florian Föger received a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Innsbruck, Austria.
Dr. Martin Werle, MBA
Martin Werle, co-inventor of the Cyprumed technology, held various leadership and management positions in formulation development, corporate strategy and global R&D at Syngenta AG, Basel, Switzerland. In addition, he has many years of international experience as scientist and project leader in the area of oral peptide delivery, in both, academia and start-ups. Martin Werle has published more than 30 peer reviewed research articles and book contributions in the field of drug delivery. He received an MBA from SMC University, Switzerland and a PhD in Pharmaceutical Technology from the University of Innsbruck, Austria.
Board members with decades of industry experience
Dr. Jürg Meier, Chair of the advisory board
Jürg Meier was the Executive Director of the Novartis Venture Fund for eight years. Previously, he was working over 25 years in various international management functions of the former company Sandoz Pharma Ltd., holding positions such as Head of R&D Biochemie GmbH Austria, Head of R&D Sandoz USA and worldwide and President of Sandoz Pharma Japan. During eight years he was a member of the Swiss National Science Foundation and supervised three NCCR programs (National Centers of Competence in Research). Jürg Meier was Chairman of Polyphor AG and of Cardiolynx AG and a Board Member of Tecan AG, BioMed Invest AG and Solvias AG. Today Jürg Meier consults entrepreneurs and start-up companies.
Dr. Ruedi Wäger
Ruedi Wäger was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Aventis Behring L.L.C.. Previously, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of ZLB Central Laboratories, Blood Transfusion Service of Swiss Red Cross, and spent more than 20 years at Sandoz Ltd., where he had consecutive worldwide responsibilities for Strategic Research and Development Planning, Human Resource Management, and Marketing. Ruedi Wäger currently sits on the board of various biopharmaceutical companies. He earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
Dr. Uwe Jacob
Uwe Jacob was the main founder and first CEO of SuppreMol GmbH. Later he was holding the position of the Chief Scientific Officer and the Chief Development Officer. In parallel Uwe Jacob is teaching biochemistry at the Gene Center, Munich. Before working with SuppreMol he was assistant Professor at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich and a group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry. Uwe Jacob studied biochemistry at the Medizinische Hochschule Hannover and the University of Southern California. He finalized his PhD thesis in X-ray crystallography in the department of Prof. Huber at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry. Afterwards Uwe Jacob continued his career as a post doctoral scientist at Roche Pharmaceuticals where he also finished his habilitation program.
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Oral formulation development
Cyprumed has ongoing collaborations with larger pharma and Biotech companies to develop oral formulations for biologics. Cyprumed has been working with a broad range of peptides with different phys./chem. features and has also experience in formulating proteins and antibodies. In certain cases, when oral bioavailability needs to be improved, collaboration-projects with challenging small molecules are also being conducted. In addition, for some biologics, Cyprumed is developing nasal delivery systems.
Generally, partnering companies are interested in our proprietary oral platform technology and formulation knowhow to develop oral drug products with their proprietary peptide drugs. In such a case, Cyprumed formulates the partner molecule into oral dosage forms such as (enteric) tablets, capsules or mini-tablets for feasibility studies. Small scale non-GMP batches for pre-clinical studies can be manufactured with minimal amounts of API in our in-house oral formulation labs in Innsbruck, Austria. Further frequently performed in-house activities include in vitro protease stability studies, storage stability studies, Caco-2 permeation studies and the development of tailored enteric coatings.
Prior in vivo testing, oral dosage forms can be assessed in vitro in terms of their disintegration and dissolution properties, tablet hardness, enteric properties and storage stability. Analytics are generally performed via HPLC. Tablet presses and a small-scale pan coater complement our in-house capabilities.
Further, we have long-standing collaborations with external partners (CROs and Universities), in case certain methods, studies or assessments which are not directly linked to formulation development are required within in a project (e.g.: in vitro safety assessments, pharmacology such as in vivo PK/PD evaluation, bioanalytics, BD/legal/IP services etc.).
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Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) reports on success stories of funded projects (incl. Cyprumed, Biontech and others)
Link to pdf of Cyprumed project
Cyprumed to present data on ORAL PROTAC DELIVERY at the Protein Degradation & Targetting Undruggables 2022 conference in Basel, Switzerland, October 11th and 12th
Grant of FFG Funding (Österreichische Forschungsförderung)
Cyprumed GmbH Enters Agreement with Ferring Pharmaceuticals for Development of Oral Drug Delivery Technology for Patient-Centric non-invasive Peptide Therapeutics
US Patent granted
ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation) features an article on Cyprumed research activities
Grant of FFG Funding (Österreichische Forschungsförderung)
Grant of FFG Funding (Österreichische Forschungsförderung)
Cyprumed establishes new R&D Center in Innsbruck
European Patent granted
Cyprumed awarded at the Science4Life Venture Cup
Cyprumed wins concept phase at the Science4Life Venture Cup 2016
Cyprumed announces the appointment of Dr. Martin Werle, MBA as Chief Operating Officer
Cyprumed receives AWS Seedfinancing
Cyprumed wins first prize of Best of Biotech competition (Phase 2)
AWS funded Cyprumed receives Start-up award from Secretary of State Harald Mahrer
Cyprumed receives preseed grant from AWS
Cyprumed wins first prize of Best of Biotech competition (Phase 1)
Dr. Florian Föger wins first prize of AdventureX business competition