What are the key takeaways from this Business Of Biotech episode?

Key insights include: **Stealth-mode validation:** Vivtex spent roughly seven years validating its platform before raising its public profile, deliberately avoiding announcements until the technology could reliably produce commercially viable solid dosage formulations. For biotech founders, this approach reduces the risk of overpromising to partners and then having to backtrack when the platform's actual capabilities become clearer.; **Non-dilutive pharma revenue:** By securing approximately 10 pharma co-development partnerships early, Vivtex reached revenue-positive status without heavy reliance on venture capital. Founders should pursue select industry collaborations as a funding strategy, but limit early partners to a manageable number — von Erlach cautions against taking on 10 simultaneously while still refining the platform.; **Trust-building through scientific transparency:** The Novo Nordisk deal, worth up to $2.1 billion, grew from years of presenting data — including failures — at conferences and maintaining close ties with Novo's scientific team. Founders can accelerate partnership timelines by consistently sharing longitudinal progress publicly rather than only approaching potential partners with polished, final results.

What did Vivtex's Thomas von Erlach discuss on Business Of Biotech?

Thomas von Erlach, PhD, cofounder and CEO of Vivtex, describes how his MIT-spun company uses ex vivo GI tissue screening, computational modeling, and AI to create orally available biologics, culminating in a $2.1 billion partnership with Novo Nordisk targeting obesity, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases. Key topics include: **Stealth-mode validation:** Vivtex spent roughly seven years validating its platform before raising its public profile, deliberately avoiding announcements until the technology could reliably produce commercially viable solid dosage formulations. For biotech founders, this approach reduces the risk of overpromising to partners and then having to backtrack when the platform's actual capabilities become clearer.; **Non-dilutive pharma revenue:** By securing approximately 10 pharma co-development partnerships early, Vivtex reached revenue-positive status without heavy reliance on venture capital. Founders should pursue select industry collaborations as a funding strategy, but limit early partners to a manageable number — von Erlach cautions against taking on 10 simultaneously while still refining the platform..

How long is this episode of Business Of Biotech?

This episode is 53 minutes long. SignalCast provides an AI-generated summary so you can get the key insights in about 3 minutes.

Business Of Biotech

Making Biologics Orally Available With Vivtex's Thomas von Erlach, Ph.D.

March 2, 2026

53 min episode · 2 min read

Vivtex's Thomas von Erlach

Episode

53 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Relationships, Startups, Fundraising & VC

AI-Generated Summary

Published Mar 13, 2026

Key Takeaways

✓Stealth-mode validation: Vivtex spent roughly seven years validating its platform before raising its public profile, deliberately avoiding announcements until the technology could reliably produce commercially viable solid dosage formulations. For biotech founders, this approach reduces the risk of overpromising to partners and then having to backtrack when the platform's actual capabilities become clearer.
✓Non-dilutive pharma revenue: By securing approximately 10 pharma co-development partnerships early, Vivtex reached revenue-positive status without heavy reliance on venture capital. Founders should pursue select industry collaborations as a funding strategy, but limit early partners to a manageable number — von Erlach cautions against taking on 10 simultaneously while still refining the platform.
✓Trust-building through scientific transparency: The Novo Nordisk deal, worth up to $2.1 billion, grew from years of presenting data — including failures — at conferences and maintaining close ties with Novo's scientific team. Founders can accelerate partnership timelines by consistently sharing longitudinal progress publicly rather than only approaching potential partners with polished, final results.
✓In-house execution over CRO reliance: Vivtex keeps all screening, computational analysis, and solid dosage prototyping internal because external CROs cannot match the pace a survival-motivated small team maintains. When a company's existence depends on solving problems quickly, outsourcing critical platform work introduces delays that compound across multiple partner programs simultaneously.
✓Licensing structure with big pharma: Under the Novo Nordisk agreement, Vivtex licenses its existing formulation technologies and screening capabilities — including molecular dynamics simulation and AI-driven predictive modeling — while Novo retains full responsibility for development and commercialization. Smaller biotechs negotiating similar deals should benchmark terms against multiple simultaneous term sheets to accurately gauge real market value.

What It Covers

Thomas von Erlach, PhD, cofounder and CEO of Vivtex, describes how his MIT-spun company uses ex vivo GI tissue screening, computational modeling, and AI to create orally available biologics, culminating in a $2.1 billion partnership with Novo Nordisk targeting obesity, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases.

Key Questions Answered

•Stealth-mode validation: Vivtex spent roughly seven years validating its platform before raising its public profile, deliberately avoiding announcements until the technology could reliably produce commercially viable solid dosage formulations. For biotech founders, this approach reduces the risk of overpromising to partners and then having to backtrack when the platform's actual capabilities become clearer.
•Non-dilutive pharma revenue: By securing approximately 10 pharma co-development partnerships early, Vivtex reached revenue-positive status without heavy reliance on venture capital. Founders should pursue select industry collaborations as a funding strategy, but limit early partners to a manageable number — von Erlach cautions against taking on 10 simultaneously while still refining the platform.
•Trust-building through scientific transparency: The Novo Nordisk deal, worth up to $2.1 billion, grew from years of presenting data — including failures — at conferences and maintaining close ties with Novo's scientific team. Founders can accelerate partnership timelines by consistently sharing longitudinal progress publicly rather than only approaching potential partners with polished, final results.
•In-house execution over CRO reliance: Vivtex keeps all screening, computational analysis, and solid dosage prototyping internal because external CROs cannot match the pace a survival-motivated small team maintains. When a company's existence depends on solving problems quickly, outsourcing critical platform work introduces delays that compound across multiple partner programs simultaneously.
•Licensing structure with big pharma: Under the Novo Nordisk agreement, Vivtex licenses its existing formulation technologies and screening capabilities — including molecular dynamics simulation and AI-driven predictive modeling — while Novo retains full responsibility for development and commercialization. Smaller biotechs negotiating similar deals should benchmark terms against multiple simultaneous term sheets to accurately gauge real market value.

Notable Moment

Von Erlach reveals that most of Vivtex's work is actually internal R&D, not partner-driven — a counterintuitive fact given its 10 pharma partnerships. The company runs six-to-twelve-month stealth programs, test-drives results with potential partners, then decides whether to expand or license each program.

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Episode Transcript

Welcome back to the business of biotech. I'm your host, Ben Comer, chief editor at Life Science Leader, and today, I'm speaking with Thomas von Ehrlach, PhD, cofounder and CEO at Vivtex, a company he cofounded with MIT's doctor Robert Langer, which is focused on developing orally available biologics as opposed to injected therapies or IV administration through the use of what doctor Langer has described as a gastrointestinal tract on a chip. Thomas was a post doc in the Langer lab and helped invent the the Vivtex platform, and he has experience with biopharma industry co development partnerships, which we'll talk about. Vivtech's very recently announced a partnership with Novo Nordisk worth up to $2,100,000,000 and has secured several other pharma partnerships. We'll talk about working in the Langer Lab and Vivtech's company formation, securing funding, establishing industry partnerships, and negotiating licensing deals, and we'll get an overview of Vivtech's technology platform and what it might mean for patients. Thank you so much for being here, Thomas. Glad to be here. Thanks, Ben. I wanted to start out with, with, doctor Bob Langer. He's a legend, in bio technology, and I also wanna give a shout out to my colleague, Ray Dogum at Drug Discovery online who spoke with doctor Langer a couple of months ago and published a video conversation, of that meeting. You can find it on the Drug Discovery online website and maybe as an added incentive, I'll just say there's a a pretty, nifty slide of hand card trick involved, in that video as well, so check that out. But, Thomas, I'm interested in what your experiences were like, working in the Langer Lab, as a postdoc. And maybe, first of all, how did you get in? And second, was it about what you expected? Yeah. Great great question. Yeah. I, I did my PhD in, tissue engineering, at Imperial College in the lab of Molly Stevens. And, I don't know if you know this, but Molly Stevens, is is a pretty well known, professor in in tissue engineering Mhmm. And and and and other other fields. And, she was a postdoc in in Bob Langer's, lab, long time ago, so she knows, Bob very well. And, after my PhD, when I where when I was sort of thinking what should I do with my life, what should I do next, she proposed that, I will go over there as a postdoc. And, honestly, that sounded pretty nice to me. That sounded pretty good. So so that's what I did. And when I came over to Bob's lab, I think like many other, members of his lab, you know, I came with his with a very specific background, but not really with a very specific idea what I'm gonna do there. And I think that's really really a a a a a a you kind of a unique feature of of of bobsled. You have a lot of, talented scientists that come from different fields …

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