In this project Enphasys AB has explored a new business leg targeting sales of a miniaturized version of its current patented enabling absorption (ENA) device. The ENA is designed to mimic the upper small intestine which is the most important region it the gut for absorption of medicines and nutrients. Enphasys is currently providing services to partners in need of a better understanding of absorption of formulated drugs, both during the early development stage and the later clinical stages. The ENA provides mechanistic description of the absorption and importantly has shown to be the tool to use to identify which formulation that will support the highest absorption in higher species and in humans. It is currently suggested to be used instead of animal experiments, or at least, to reduce the number of animal experiments needed. During interviews we have identified that customers are interested in a smaller tool, to enable early screening of formulation performance. The target product profile here is a tool that can be used in an automated setting and that is in demand of less amount of formulation and with less detailed information coming out of the experiments as compared to the ENA being acceptable. In SMARTA, Enphasys therefore explored the financial value of a small scaled version of the ENA, worked to build stronger communication strategies around the company and its products and services, and carried out extensive experimental validation of the small scale version to understand how feasible it is to establish the new intended business area.
