Clinicians may one day give up syringes in favor of pills

Wednesday, April 8, 2020 - 20:30 in Health & Medicine

A new startup, i2O Therapeutics, has launched to commercialize innovations developed at Harvard University that may one day enable patients and clinicians to give up syringes in favor of pills. Using ionic liquid technologies developed in the lab of Harvard bioengineer Samir Mitragotri, biologic therapies that would normally need to be delivered via needle may be reformulated and encapsulated as pills for oral delivery. Harvard’s Office of Technology Development has granted i2O Therapeutics an exclusive license to the technology, to develop safe and effective oral formulations for a range of biologics, large molecules, and peptide-based pharmaceuticals. The company has raised $4 million in seed funding from Sanofi Ventures and the JDRF T1D Fund to advance its mission, and will initially focus on developing formulations for GLP1 analogs, glucagon-like peptides that help balance glucose levels to treat diabetes. “Our technology has the potential to enable the oral delivery of high-value drugs in a...

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