Peptides have become an increasingly important class of therapeutics to treat a wide range of acute and chronic conditions. However, of the >800 peptide therapeutics in development, almost all are injectables due to very low oral bioavailability.

There is clear evidence that oral delivery of medicines improves patient adherence, thus improving therapeutic efficacy and outcomes, and reducing overall healthcare burden compared to injectables.

However, oral peptide delivery is extremely challenging due to poor stability and very low oral bioavailability (i.e. amount of drug that makes it to the systemic circulation). The oral bioavailability of recently approved peptide drugs, such as oral GLP-1 receptor agonist Rybelsus® is less than 1%.

Our initial efforts are focussed on the development of an oral GLP-1 receptor agonist (semaglutide) with the view to expanding the technology to other high-value peptides, particularly in cardiometabolic diseases.