Ferring Pharmaceuticals and Enteris BioPharma have entered into a license agreement and initiated an early development agreement to leverage Enteris’ proprietary and patented oral peptide and small molecule delivery platform, Peptelligence, to engineer an oral formulation of a peptide-based injectable therapeutic developed by Ferring.

Enteris will license to Ferring its oral drug delivery technologies, as well as provide clinical trial finished product, and will receive milestones and royalties based on net sales of the developed product.

The licensing agreement with Ferring highlights Enteris’ “Feasibility-to-Licensing” strategy involving Peptelligence, its peptide and small molecule oral drug delivery platform. The technology is currently the subject of several active external development programs and, according to the company, has proven effective over the last decade to enable the safe delivery of peptide-based therapeutics and other molecules with low oral bioavailability.

“Our agreement with Ferring Pharmaceuticals exemplifies the opportunity our Peptelligence platform offers in enhancing the market potential of peptide-based therapeutics by enabling the oral delivery of medications that must otherwise be administered by injection,” said Joel Tune, chief executive officer and executive chairman, Enteris BioPharma. “We are excited to work with an industry leader like Ferring Pharmaceuticals to advance the development of an oral peptide-based therapeutic.”

Alan Harris, senior vice president, R&D executive office, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, said, “The ability to deliver oral peptides offers Ferring the opportunity to provide additional therapeutic choices to patients. We are impressed with Enteris’ proprietary oral delivery technology and look forward to working with them to advance this development program.”