Entrepreneurial history

Controlled delivery of pharmaceutically active proteins is an important topic in the advanced drug delivery field. The bioavail-ability of proteins after oral administration is low due to chemical associated with a lower patient comfort due to repeated adminis-tration [1]. Numerous approaches have been evaluated to obtain a prolonged circulation time of the protein (e.g. by conjugation to poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)) [2] and to assure the bioactivity of the therapeutic is preserved. The latter can be accomplished by entrapment of the protein into polymeric matrices. Various deliv-ery vehicles were designed for the controlled release of bioactive proteins covering among others nanoparticles [3–5], microspheres [6–9], and macroscopic hydrogels [10–12]. Special attentio