OXPzero™ – Drug Formulation Platform Technology
OXPzero™ is a versatile platform based on layered double hydroxides, applicable to a broad range of anionic drugs and biomolecules. It enables control of how a drug is released and absorbed, addressing common formulation challenges such as stability, solubility, permeability and taste.
By engineering release kinetics and systemic exposure as independent variables, the platform creates new differentiation opportunities across a range of established and novel drug categories, without requiring changes to the underlying API.
How It Works
The platform is implemented using proprietary layered double hydroxide (LDH) architecture. In this structure, anionic drug molecules are hosted within positively charged metal hydroxide layers. This engineered matrix governs how the drug is released and becomes available for absorption.
This architecture enables:
• Tunable release kinetics
• Intrinsic taste masking
• Improved physicochemical stability
• Compatibility with multiple oral dosage formats
LDH synthesis is compatible with scalable aqueous pharmaceutical manufacturing processes.
Platform Benefits
Engineered Control of Release – The platform allows release and absorption kinetics to be engineered independently of solubility, enabling differentiated performance without changes to the underlying API.
In one application, a human pharmacokinetic study demonstrated this principle using a fast-acting ibuprofen formulation, achieving a substantially faster median Tmax than standard ibuprofen while remaining bioequivalent for AUC and Cmax.
This demonstrates the platform's ability to decouple onset speed from peak exposure.
Intrinsic Taste-Masking – The LDH architecture prevents immediate drug release in the oral cavity, eliminating bitterness and throat burn and enabling palatable formats such as ODTs, granules, drinks, and chewables.
Controlled Exposure Profile
Release behaviour is governed by engineered ion exchange rather than solubility alone, allowing early attainment of effective concentrations without elevated systemic peaks.Gastric Tolerability Potential – For certain drug classes, early data indicate the platform's controlled-release mechanism may reduce local irritation potential compared to standard formulations.
Format Versatility – Adaptable to OTC pain products, acute prescription use, paediatric formulations, and novel delivery formats including hot drinks and dispersible systems.
Regulatory Pathway
Because the platform reformulates established, well-characterised APIs, applications can typically leverage accelerated regulatory routes, such as the 505(b)(2) pathway in the US or Article 10(3) hybrid pathway in the EU, depending on the specific application and jurisdiction.
Development leverages established API safety profiles and does not require new efficacy trials.
Platform Extensions
The LDH platform's applicability spans a wide range of drug classes — including NSAIDs, GABA analogues, dopamine-precursor medicines, and certain oncology and immunosuppressant agents — where the underlying chemistry could be applied to modify absorption, exposure, or tolerability. Peptide-based therapeutics, including GLP-1 receptor agonists, represent a further, longer-term and more exploratory direction for the platform.
