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Press Release / Oct 03, 2024

Hovione and Zerion Pharma create joint venture to further expand use of Dispersome® technology

A partnership to accelerate the development of the Dispersome® technology platform and further expand its applicability and reach for increasing the solubility and bioavailability of small drug molecules.

Press Release - Hovione Zerion Joint Venture | Hovione

Lisbon, October 3, 2024 – Hovione Farmaciência, S.A. (“Hovione”) and Zerion Pharma A/S (“Zerion”) today announced that they have expanded their partnership to accelerate the development of the Dispersome® technology platform and further expand its applicability and reach for increasing the solubility and bioavailability of small drug molecules. To this aim, the companies created a joint venture responsible for managing the Dispersome® intellectual property portfolio and allocated market rights to the two partners.

Hovione and Zerion have been co-promoting the Dispersome® technology to clients since the beginning of 2022. Under the extended collaboration, Hovione is granted exclusive global rights to develop and offer the Dispersome® technology for drugs delivered via the respiratory route, a field where Hovione is active today with leading formulation and manufacturing capabilities. Further, Hovione is granted exclusive rights to develop and offer Dispersome® formulations for nutraceutical and medicinal foods products, an area with unmet needs in the area of bioavailability. Hovione is also granted a non-exclusive license to promote the Dispersome® technology for use in Pharmaceutical oral dosage forms for new chemical entities. In return for the grant of rights, Zerion will receive royalties from Hovione’s commercial activities in these fields.

Within the framework of the joint venture, the parties will work closely together to bring the Dispersome® technology to customers as quickly as possible. Arla Foods Ingredients (Denmark) will deliver the pharmaceutical excipient (Lacprodan® BLG-100 Pharma Grade) for the Dispersome® technology, when BLG is accepted as a novel excipient.

“Hovione is thrilled to reinforce its collaboration with Zerion to further accelerate the adoption of Dispersome® in the pharma and nutra markets,” said Jean-Luc Herbeaux, Hovione’s CEO. “The use of Zerion’s Dispersome® Technology has proven to deliver superior solubilization power for both pharma and nutraceutical active ingredients. This highly innovative platform is a valuable addition to Hovione’s leading offering in solubility and permeability enhancement for NCEs and nutraceuticals and affords formulators new options which address unmet needs of the industry.”

Ole Wiborg, the CEO of Zerion, comments: “Hovione is the global leader in the field of producing amorphous solid dispersions by spray-drying and this extension of our partnership again confirms the huge potential of our Dispersome® technology. If one company in the pharma industry can truly judge its value, it is Hovione, and we have a strong belief in sharing our technology with Hovione, who will secure its use with more drugs and ingredients and in applications across several delivery routes. Thus, we expect substantial revenues from the collaboration in the years to come.”

Through their partnership, Hovione and Zerion are offering pharma, biotech and nutra companies worldwide access to an innovative delivery platform combined with an unparalleled experience in formulation development, scale-up, and GMP manufacturing.

The Dispersome® technology

Zerion has pioneered the Dispersome® technology that addresses poor drug solubility, one of the most recognized drug development challenges. The Dispersome® technology increases solubility and bioavailability of poorly soluble compounds and can be applied at any stage of drug discovery or drug development, including in preclinical studies, first in human studies, and reformulation of existing drug products.

About Hovione
Hovione is an international company with over 60 years of experience in pharmaceutical development and manufacturing operations. As a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) it has a fully integrated offering of services for drug substances, drug product intermediates and drug products. The company has four FDA inspected sites in the USA, Portugal, Ireland and China and development laboratories in Lisbon, Portugal and New Jersey, USA. Hovione provides pharmaceutical customers services for the development and compliant manufacture of innovative drugs, including highly potent compounds, and customized product solutions across the entire drug life cycle. In the inhalation area, Hovione offers a complete range of services, from API, formulation development and manufacturing, capsule filling and devices.

About Zerion Pharma A/S
Zerion develops its own proprietary drug formulations and offers its Dispersome® technology platform to established pharma companies as a means to solve their challenging drug solubility problems. Zerion was established in 2019 as a spinout of the University of Copenhagen.

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The certification is granted to Hovione's four manufacturing sites for the third consecutive year.