On 29 November at the Dutch Life Science Conference, Chrétien Herben, director of the LifeSciences@Work Accelerator, announced SeraNovo as the winning team of the 20th edition of the Venture Challenge. The Leiden-based startup SeraNovo helps pharmaceutical companies increase the bioavailability of their drugs through an innovative formulation platform.

According to the Venture Challenge jury, the platform addresses a great need of the pharmaceutical industry. SeraNovo impressed the jury with their expertise and presentation skills at the Venture Challenge finals at Loyens & Loeff last week.

Poor bioavailability stops drugs from getting to the market, which is a major problem for pharmaceutical companies. Solving this issue takes a long time, costs a lot of money and reduces highly profitable patent life. The total market for drug formulation is €9.2 billion. SeraNovo’s proprietary formulation platform radically increases bioavailability and allows products to reach the market significantly faster and at a lower cost. For every drug, SeraNovo creates a purpose-designed eutectic mixture and couples it with polymers to create a formulation. When they are administered orally, these formulations create a supersaturated state in the intestine resulting in a significantly higher bioavailability.

Niall Hodgins, co-founder of SeraNovo: "The Venture Challenge asks all the right questions to enable a startup to be as prepared as possible to launch. SeraNovo developed a lot during the process, and we now have a great springboard to service our customers next year. We will continue to recommend the Venture Challenge to any startup who will listen!"

The Venture Challenge Fall 2018 started in September this year and ended during the Dutch Life Science Conference 2018. Other participating teams were IOVA, NeoStartTrack, ExoVectory, River Biomedics and MedCore. Participating in the Venture Challenge leads to a clear venture plan, as well as to very well-prepared pitches. The LifeSciences@Work Accelerator is powered by the Top Sector Life Sciences & Health.

Contact Niall Hodgins for more information about SeraNovo.