Biograil raises €20M to put injectable biologics into a swallowable device

Biograil (Copenhagen) has raised €20 million in a financing round co-led by Verve Ventures and Megatrend Invest, with participation from HTGF (Opportunity growth fund), Eli Lilly, Sanner Ventures, Evonik Venture Capital, Anobis GmbH, and Roquette Ventures. The company is developing a swallowable device that delivers biologic drugs — currently injectable only — using a novel oral delivery platform. Stage was not disclosed in the official press release; sources describe it as a "financing round."

The problem biologics pose for oral delivery

Biologics are the most commercially important drug class of the past two decades. GLP-1 agonists like semaglutide and tirzepatide, monoclonal antibodies, and insulin all share a common delivery constraint: the stomach degrades them before they can be absorbed. Every oral formulation attempt either fails at the biology or requires doses so large that the production economics collapse. Patients on these treatments face a lifetime of injections — a compliance and quality-of-life barrier that the pharmaceutical industry has been trying to overcome for decades, with limited success.

Biograil's approach is mechanical rather than chemical. Rather than modifying the drug molecule to survive gastric acid, the device delivers the biologic directly at the intestinal absorption site, bypassing degradation entirely. The company sits at the pre-clinical stage: the €20M finances GLP non-clinical studies, GMP manufacturing process development, and Phase 1 preparation. A larger round is planned for 2027, implying the team targets a Phase 1 filing within the year.

What the investor lineup signals

Eli Lilly's direct participation is the round's most telling detail. Lilly's injectable GLP-1 portfolio is worth tens of billions; a credible oral delivery device for the same compounds would be transformative for them. Their corporate venture arm rarely takes pre-Phase 1 positions in platform technologies without in-house scientific review. That is not a guarantee the device works — most drug delivery platforms at this stage never reach market — but it means at least one buyer with deep drug development expertise found the biology plausible enough to invest.

Evonik Venture Capital and Roquette Ventures are both major pharmaceutical excipient and specialty ingredient manufacturers. Their presence suggests the manufacturing process has been modelled with the companies who would eventually produce it at scale — a supply-chain signal that is unusual this early in clinical development.

HTGF's participation extends the German state-backed fund's growing European biotech pipeline; the fund has an established track record backing early-stage life sciences platforms across continental Europe.

The 18-month question is straightforward: Biograil needs to complete the GLP non-clinical package and produce first-in-human Phase 1 data showing the device delivers meaningful drug concentrations without safety signals. Hardware medical devices targeting the GI tract carry their own regulatory and safety requirements beyond those of a drug formulation alone. The €20M is sized for pre-clinical through Phase 1 — it will not stretch to proof of efficacy.