Copenhagen biotech founded in 2019 as a University of Copenhagen spin-out and owner of the Dispersome® drug-delivery platform, which boosts the solubility and bioavailability of small-molecule drugs. In October 2024 it created a joint venture with Portuguese CDMO Hovione to manage the Dispersome® IP portfolio and split market rights, after co-promoting the technology with Hovione since 2022.
Zerion Pharma’s corridor link runs through Hovione, Portugal’s flagship pharmaceutical CDMO. The two companies began co-promoting Zerion’s Dispersome® technology — which uses protein-based co-amorphous formulations to raise the solubility and bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs — in early 2022, extended the partnership to nutraceuticals and medicinal foods later that year, and in October 2024 formalised a joint venture that owns and manages the Dispersome® intellectual-property portfolio.
Under the JV, Hovione holds exclusive global rights to develop and offer Dispersome® formulations for respiratory-route drugs and for nutraceutical products, plus a non-exclusive licence for oral dosage forms of new chemical entities, with Zerion receiving royalties on Hovione’s commercial activity. Danish dairy group Arla’s ingredients arm supplies the whey-protein excipient at the heart of the platform.
This is Danish university science industrialised through Portuguese pharmaceutical manufacturing muscle — a Copenhagen spin-out entrusting its core IP to a joint venture with a Lisbon-headquartered CDMO. As Hovione deepens its role in Nordic pharma supply chains, the Zerion JV shows the corridor operating at the technology-licensing level, not just contract manufacturing.
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