Spoke Sciences Acquires "SNAC" Drug Delivery Platform

August 2023

Spoke Sciences, Inc., an ingredient technology company developing innovative approaches to provide better, safer, and more reliable functional ingredients for foods, beverages, and cosmetics, has acquired a proven platform technology "SNAC" to expand its portfolio.

SNAC is an oral bioavailability enhancing excipient formally named N- (8- (2-hydroxybenzoyl) amino) caprylic acid. SNAC is already proven in two marketed products: a medical food combining SNAC and vitamin B-12; and an oral formulation of SNAC and the GLP-1 agonist semaglutide, a drug indicated for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

SNAC was invented in the 1990s as an oral absorption enhancer that facilitated oral forms of a variety of water-soluble active ingredients previously only available by injection. Spoke has acquired from Seattle-based Receptor Life Sciences a patent portfolio covering the use of SNAC with certain non-water-soluble, e.g., "lipophilic" active ingredients. These lipophilic ingredients fall within "Class II" of active ingredients under the Biopharmaceutical Classification System (BCS). Because many pharmaceutical and naturally occurring compounds used in drugs, supplements and functional foods are BCS Class II, SNAC has tremendous potential.

"Spoke's team, including Dr. Andrea Leone-Bay, the inventor of SNAC, is uniquely qualified to advance the science around SNAC and broaden its adoption," said Greg Wesner, CEO of Spoke. "We are encouraged by SNAC's proven ability to make simple oral dosage forms from drugs currently administered by injection. Spoke and its partners are eager to explore expanding uses for SNAC, adding convenience and patent life to important therapies."