Illustration of a chromatographic fingerprint

PHARMACEUTICAL BIOTECHNOLOGY · CHILE

Efficacy with lineage.

Some raw materials reach the laboratory with generations of human use behind them. We choose them for that reason, and turn them into pharmaceutical assets with an identity of their own. The first comes from the cold waters of the South Pacific.

Our thesis Dermovirox®

IN-01

THE THESIS

What no synthetic molecule brings with it.

Patients want efficacy. They also want to recognise what they use. The industry has answered each wish separately; we work where the two meet.

Safety

A safety profile decided when the raw material is chosen, not at the end of development.

Sustainability

A production route without the synthesis chain.

Identity

An origin patients recognise and a generic cannot imitate.

Prior knowledge

Generations of human use before the first assay.

Optionality

One source, several therapeutic paths.

The five advantages in detail

IN-02

TECHNOLOGY

The asset is the extract.

Classical pharmacology goes into nature looking for one molecule and discards everything else. We keep the whole and subject it to the discipline of a medicine: defined composition, measured potency, identical batch after batch.

That discipline⁠—what is kept, what is concentrated, how it is obtained⁠—is where the invention lies. And its protection.

How an extract is designed

Phloroglucinol and diphlorethol: the unit and first link of the phlorotannins, polyphenols identified in Durvillaea antarctica in chains of three to eight units. [12]

IN-03

DERMOVIROX®

An antiviral born in the South Pacific.

Herpes simplex stays with a large share of humanity for life [8], and for four decades it has been treated with the same family of drugs. Dermovirox® comes from somewhere else: an extract of cochayuyo, the edible seaweed of the Chilean coast.

In published research, its raw material inhibited HSV-1 and HSV-2⁠—including strains that no longer respond to acyclovir⁠—and improved the course of skin lesions when applied as a hydrogel. [3]

The evidence

IN-04

NEREO

The next opportunity isn’t found. It’s deduced.

More than twenty-eight thousand plant species have a recorded medicinal use. [5] Almost none will become a medicine. NEREO cross-references what is known about each source⁠—chemistry, human use, activity, supply, patents⁠—and points to the few that deserve an experiment.

Illustration: of hundreds of documented sources, a few pass the filters and one becomes an asset.

Dermovirox® is the first asset in the portfolio. NEREO is the reason it won’t be the last.

How NEREO decides

IN-05

PARTNER WITH US

We take each asset to the point where a pharmaceutical company can decide.

We discover, build the evidence and transfer. The clinic, registration and the market we cover with partners who know that ground.

Ways to partner Contact

IN-06

THE OPPORTUNITY

We start from nature for what it brings to a medicine, not for what it evokes.

People want treatments that work without giving up what they value in a natural origin. Behind that aspiration lie concrete advantages for the product and for its development. Algiddeon seeks them deliberately when choosing each raw material and builds them when designing each extract.

OP-01

TWO EXPECTATIONS, TWO MARKETS

The industry has split apart what patients want together.

A conventional medicine answers the demand for efficacy: a defined active ingredient, trials and approval. A natural product answers a different expectation: recognisable ingredients, an understandable origin, processes perceived as more responsible. Rarely does the same product satisfy both, and when a natural origin appears in a medicine it is usually reduced to the source of a purified molecule.

Algiddeon works so that no one has to choose. Not because natural is better by definition⁠—it isn’t⁠—but because certain raw materials, selected with judgement and developed with pharmaceutical rigour, make it possible to build an effective medicine that keeps advantages of its own origin.

OP-02

FIVE ADVANTAGES AND HOW THEY ARE BUILT

None of these advantages comes with the origin. Each depends on a decision.

A natural origin creates the possibility; selection and development turn it into an attribute of the product. For each advantage we describe where it comes from, how we obtain it and what it means for the company that takes development forward.

Product safety

The safety of an extract is decided at four moments. When choosing the raw material: knowing its composition shows in advance which constituents to avoid. When selecting components: the extraction process can leave out fractions with no therapeutic interest or with known risk. When designing the extract: limits are set for what it must and must not contain. And when formulating: a local application, such as a topical one, concentrates exposure where the effect is needed.

For the pharmaceutical partnerAn asset whose safety profile reflects documented design decisions, not a property one hopes to confirm at the end.

Sustainability

Synthesising a molecule takes a sequence of reactions, each with its own reagents, solvents, energy and waste. When the active is an extract, the route starts from renewable biomass and proceeds through extraction, separation, concentration and formulation: the synthesis steps simply do not exist. Added to this are design choices⁠—favouring low-impact solvents, making full use of the biomass, ensuring traceability of origin and a supply that does not compromise the species or its environment. The research behind Dermovirox®, for example, worked with aqueous extracts. [3]

For the pharmaceutical partnerA shorter production route, less dependent on synthesis inputs, with an environmental case grounded in process design.

Commercial differentiation

In many therapeutic categories products compete with the same active ingredient and differ only by brand or price. An active of recognisable natural origin offers another basis for differentiation: the product can state where it comes from and what it contains in terms patients understand. That identity matches a sustained consumer preference for familiar ingredients, transparent composition and traceable origin⁠—what the market calls clean label—and it carries particular weight in dermatology and over-the-counter products, where patients take part in the choice.

For the pharmaceutical partnerA product that competes on efficacy and on identity, with a positioning that generics of the dominant active ingredient cannot replicate.

Development-risk management

This advantage is not about the product but about the decisions taken while developing it. A raw material with a history of human use⁠—as food, in traditional medicine or in documented applications⁠—comes with information a new molecule lacks: which exposures have been tolerated, which chemical families it contains, which toxicities have been described in the species or in related ones. It does not replace safety studies; it guides them. It helps choose which raw materials to study and which experimental questions to answer first.

For the pharmaceutical partnerLess capital spent on questions that already have answers, and more focused on the uncertainties that decide whether the asset moves forward.

Optionality

An isolated molecule usually has one main destination. A natural raw material supports different extract configurations⁠—depending on what is kept or concentrated⁠—, different formulations and routes of administration, and more than one indication. It can also fit different regulatory categories depending on its intended use: prescription drug, over-the-counter product or dermocosmetic.

For the pharmaceutical partnerAn asset with more than one possible trajectory. An unfavourable result in one indication does not exhaust the value of the raw material or of what has been learned about it.

These advantages are not expected from a natural origin: they are used as criteria for choosing each raw material and as requirements for designing each extract. Any one of them alone is within others’ reach; the combination is what Algiddeon builds.

OP-03

EFFICACY AND NATURALNESS

Without demonstrable therapeutic activity, the five advantages do not make a medicine.

All of the above only has value if the active treats the disease it is developed for. That is why efficacy is not one more advantage on the list: it is the condition shared by every opportunity we advance and the first filter in NEREO.

Our logic is the reverse of adding a natural ingredient to a conventional product. We start from the raw material and apply botany, biomedicine and extraction technology to develop its pharmaceutical potential until it demonstrates activity and can be produced to consistent quality, keeping the attributes of its origin along the way.

How we do it

OP-04

AN ESTABLISHED REGULATORY PATH

A complex extract can be an approved medicine.

The FDA defines botanical drugs as products derived from plant materials, algae, macroscopic fungi or combinations of them, and recognises that they are often complex mixtures whose effect cannot be reduced to a single molecule. In return, it requires showing that every batch produces the same effect, through raw-material controls, chemical and manufacturing tests, and biological assays and clinical data. [4] [7]

Veregen®

Sinecatechins from green tea leaves. Ointment for external genital and perianal warts.

Mytesi®

Crofelemer, from the sap of Croton lechleri. Oral antidiarrhoeal.

Filsuvez®

Birch bark triterpenes. Gel for wounds in epidermolysis bullosa.

NexoBrid®

Anacaulase-bcdb, pineapple-derived enzymes. Burn debridement.

These are the four botanical products the FDA has approved to date as prescription drugs. Three of them are applied to the skin or to wounds: the same route Dermovirox® is being developed for. [4] [11]

Third-party products cited as regulatory precedents. They imply no relationship with Algiddeon and no equivalence with its assets.

OP-05

FOR INDUSTRY

An asset that competes on efficacy and on identity.

For a pharmaceutical company, the opportunity is not to add one more natural product, but an asset with documented activity, a designed safety profile, a short production route, a differentiating identity and more than one development path. That is the kind of asset Algiddeon seeks, develops and transfers.

Discover Dermovirox®How we design an extract

OP-06

TECHNOLOGY

Our unit of innovation is the extract.

Algiddeon does not search for a molecule to isolate and synthesise. It designs extracts: it decides what to keep from a natural raw material, how to link its composition to therapeutic activity and how to produce it with the consistency a medicine demands. Those decisions create the asset and its protection.

TE-01

EXTRACT OR MOLECULE

Isolating a molecule is a valid strategy. It is neither the only one nor always the best.

Classical drug discovery uses nature as a source of leads: it identifies the compound responsible for an activity, purifies or synthesises it and discards the rest. That route has produced essential medicines, but it has costs. It can lose activity that depends on more than one component, it lengthens the production route and it gives up the identity of origin that patients recognise.

An extract keeps the raw material as a system. It demands more characterisation and control work, but it retains the advantages of natural origin and shifts value toward decisions that belong to the developer: how it is obtained, what it contains, how it is formulated and what it is used for.

TE-02

FROM RAW MATERIAL TO ASSET

Five decisions turn a raw material into a pharmaceutical asset.

Each one closes some options and opens others. Together they determine what the extract does, how safe it is, what it costs to produce and what can be protected.

01

Select the raw material

Species, part of the organism, provenance and harvesting conditions. The composition of a seaweed or a plant varies with each of these factors; choosing them fixes the chemical starting point and future supply.

02

Define what to keep and what to concentrate

The extraction process acts as a filter: depending on solvent, conditions and fractionation, it retains some families of compounds and excludes others. This is where the extract’s activity and safety profile is designed.

03

Link composition to activity

Fractionating the extract and measuring the activity of each fraction reveals which parts of the composition sustain the effect. That relationship guides optimisation and defines which chemical and biological markers must be controlled.

04

Establish a reproducible procedure

A medicine must behave the same way batch after batch. For an extract, that means controlling the raw material, fixing the process, setting specifications and measuring the chemical fingerprint and biological potency of each batch, as the FDA describes for botanical drugs. [4]

05

Build differentiation and protection

A species cannot be patented; the technical solutions that turn it into a medicine can be: methods of obtaining it, compositions, formulations and uses. What is not patented is safeguarded as proprietary production know-how.

TE-03

BOTANY + BIOMEDICINE + EXTRACTION TECHNOLOGY

What changes when the three disciplines decide together.

On their own, each discipline produces useful but incomplete information. The value appears where they intersect.

Botany × biomedicine

Hypotheses with a track record

A species’ documented uses and known chemistry suggest which activity to look for and which risks to watch before the first assay.

Biomedicine × extraction

Activity-guided composition

Biological assays show which fractions to keep; the process is adjusted to concentrate them and exclude the rest.

Extraction × botany

Variability under control

Knowing how the raw material changes with origin and season makes it possible to design a process that delivers the same composition from materials that are never identical.

The result is an extract whose composition is explained by its activity and whose production can be repeated. That is what we call a pharmaceutical identity.

TE-04

DEVELOPABILITY

Keeping complexity requires controlling it.

An extract is transferable when a partner can verify what it is, what it does and how it is made. These are the attributes we build into every asset.

Identity

Authenticated species, part used and provenance documented.

Chemical fingerprint

Analytical profile that identifies the extract and detects deviations.

Potency

Biological assay that measures the activity of each batch.

Consistency

Equivalent composition and activity across batches.

Specifications

Quality attributes with defined limits and methods to verify them.

Formulation

A stable presentation suited to the route and the indication.

Process

A documented, scalable procedure transferable to a manufacturer.

Supply

Traceable origin and continuity of biomass supply.

TE-05

APPLICATION

Dermovirox® applies these decisions to a topical antiviral.

An edible seaweed, an extract with documented antiviral activity and a topical formulation in development: the first asset built with this approach.

Discover Dermovirox®How we choose the next raw material

TE-06

NEREO · DISCOVERY MODEL

Choosing what to study is the most expensive decision in discovery.

NEREO is the architecture Algiddeon uses to decide which raw material to study, for which indication and with what kind of extract. It links what is known about each natural source to the criteria a transferable asset must meet, and uses data technology to organise, extend and accelerate that work.

See the architecture Current portfolio

NE-01

THE PROBLEM

There are more documented raw materials than capacity to study them.

Knowledge of the medicinal uses of natural species is vast and scattered across botanical records, pharmacopoeias, ethnopharmacological literature, chemical databases, biological assays and patents, each with its own vocabulary. Large screening programmes show the other side: testing extracts one by one is possible, but most do not get past the first stage.

28,187

plant species with at least one recorded medicinal use (Kew, 2017). [5]

41,878

plants referenced in 422 medicinal and pharmaceutical sources (Kew, MPNS v15, 2025). [1]

Over 150,000

natural extracts initially screened by the NCI-60 programme. [2]

37,054

of those samples advanced to five-dose testing. [2]

Figures from different projects, dates and datasets; they do not describe Algiddeon’s results.

The bottleneck is not a shortage of candidates but deciding, with good information, which ones deserve an experiment. That decision is what NEREO structures.

NE-02

ARCHITECTURE · 1 · INPUTS

Nine types of information that decide whether a raw material can become an asset.

NEREO brings together in one model what is usually consulted separately, and links each data point to the decision it helps make.

Input	What it records	Which decision it informs
Raw material	Species, synonyms, part used, distribution, documented uses	What is assessed and with what background
Composition	Chemical families and described compounds	What could explain activity or risk
Extraction processes	Published methods of extraction and fractionation	Which extracts are technically feasible
Biological activity	Assays, models, potencies and proposed mechanisms	Which effect is supported, and by what evidence
Applications	Diseases, unmet needs, routes of administration	Where that effect has clinical and commercial value
Safety and human use	Food or traditional use, described toxicity, known exposure	Which risks to watch and what to study first
Developability	Stability, ability to characterise and standardise	Whether it can become a controlled product
Supply	Availability, cultivation or harvesting, access regulation	Whether supply can be sustained
Intellectual property	Related patents and publications	What room for protection remains

NE-03

ARCHITECTURE · 2 · RELATIONSHIPS

The value lies in the connections, not in the records.

Raw material
Extract or fraction
Compounds
Activity
Mechanism
Indication

An isolated data point rarely decides anything. NEREO connects each raw material to its extracts and fractions, those to the compounds they contain, the compounds to activities and mechanisms, and the activities to indications and clinical needs. Each connection keeps its source and the level of evidence behind it.

That network answers questions no single database can: which raw materials with a history of food use have described activity against enveloped viruses; which indications share the mechanism of an extract already studied; which sources with known activity still have no published protection.

NE-04

ARCHITECTURE · 3 · FILTERS

Six filters an opportunity must pass before the first experiment.

Hypotheses that emerge from the network are tested against the criteria for a transferable asset. If one fails any of them, it is reformulated or discarded before any lab investment.

Therapeutic rationale+

Is there a clinical need in which this activity makes a difference? Activity without an indication of value does not move forward.

Knowledge of the material+

Is enough known about identity, composition and human exposure to start with an advantage? Between two sources with similar activity, the better documented one moves forward.

Extraction feasibility+

Can an active, characterisable and reproducible extract be obtained? Activity that only appears under conditions impossible to scale does not move forward.

Differentiation and protection+

Does it offer something existing treatments don’t, and does it leave room to protect it?

Optionality+

Does it open more than one indication, formulation or product category?

Supply and sustainability+

Can the raw material be obtained with traceability, continuity and without compromising the species or its environment?

NE-05

ARCHITECTURE · 4 · DECISIONS

Each experiment answers the question that decides whether an opportunity moves forward.

Opportunities that pass the filters receive one of four decisions: advance to validation, investigate a specific uncertainty, reformulate the hypothesis or discard it. Experiments are not meant to accumulate data, but to resolve the weightiest uncertainty at the lowest cost. Their results⁠—favourable, neutral or negative⁠—feed back into the model and improve the next selection.

Technology plays a precise role: extracting and normalising information from heterogeneous sources, keeping the network of relationships up to date and retrieving the relevant evidence for each question. That makes it possible to examine more raw materials, with more sources, in less time. The criteria and the decisions remain scientific.

Advance to validationInvestigate an uncertaintyReformulateDiscard

NE-06

TWO DIRECTIONS OF GROWTH

More uses for what we already know. New sources for what we are looking for.

Depth

From a raw material already studied, look for new indications, extract configurations and formulations. Each asset leaves knowledge⁠—composition, process, safety⁠—that makes the next development from the same source cheaper.

Breadth

Apply the same criteria to new raw materials, terrestrial or marine, from Chile or other regions, for therapeutic needs where a natural origin adds value.

NE-07

FROM MODEL TO PORTFOLIO

From available information to an asset a partner can evaluate.

Opportunities move through stages with explicit entry criteria. Three categories should not be confused: identified opportunities, pre-candidates under evaluation and assets.

1

Knowledge universeRaw materials and available background. An entry here is not yet an opportunity.

2

Identified opportunitiesA specific link between raw material, activity and application that justifies a review.

3

Prioritised opportunitiesPassed a first review of evidence and the basic filters.

4

Pre-candidates under evaluationFormally selected to test their hypothesis and technical feasibility.

5

Validation programmesWith a defined experimental plan to resolve the decisive uncertainties.

6

AssetsWith enough evidence and technical package for a partner’s evaluation.

AssetRaw materialIndicationRouteDiscoveryPreclinicalClinicalRegistration

Dermovirox®Durvillaea antarcticaHerpes simplex (HSV-1 and HSV-2)TopicalDiscoveryPreclinicalClinicalRegistration

Dermovirox® comes from academic research that predates NEREO; it is now the first asset in the portfolio and the benchmark against which the model’s criteria are calibrated.

NE-08

DEVELOPMENT STATUS

The model is defined. Its technology platform is under construction.

The inputs, relationships, filters and stages described on this page already guide the selection of opportunities, which Algiddeon’s scientific team carries out. The technology architecture that automates source integration and evidence retrieval is in development; its role is to extend the model’s scale and speed, not to replace its criteria.

NE-09

DISCOVERY PARTNERSHIPS

A model that can be directed toward a partner’s priorities.

A company interested in a therapeutic area or a type of raw material can collaborate in origination: defining criteria, contributing knowledge and evaluating the resulting opportunities from the outset.

Propose a collaboration Discover Dermovirox®

NE-10

DERMOVIROX® · TOPICAL ANTIVIRAL

An antiviral for herpes simplex, developed from an edible seaweed.

Dermovirox® is an extract of Durvillaea antarctica—cochayuyo, from the Chilean coast⁠—formulated for topical application. It brings together three attributes that rarely coincide in this category: activity against HSV-1 and HSV-2, including acyclovir-resistant viruses; a natural origin patients recognise; and a designed, protectable composition.

Indication: herpes simplex (HSV-1 and HSV-2)Route: topicalSource: Durvillaea antarcticaStage: preclinicalAvailable for licensing or co-development

See the evidence Request an evaluation

DX-01

THE NEED

A lifelong infection, almost always treated with the same family of antivirals.

According to the WHO, in 2016 around two thirds of the world’s population under 50 were living with HSV-1, and close to 13% of people aged 15 to 49 with HSV-2. [8] The virus remains latent and recurs; each recurrence calls for treatment again.

Acyclovir and its derivatives are the standard of care, and some of their topical formulations offer limited benefit. Resistance, uncommon in the general population, reaches 4% to 7% of isolates in immunocompromised patients [9], for whom the alternatives are second-line drugs such as foscarnet and cidofovir. [10]

An effective topical antiviral that remains active against resistant strains and has an origin patients readily accept fills a space the category does not cover today.

DX-02

THE RAW MATERIAL

From cochayuyo to an extract with a pharmaceutical identity.

Durvillaea antarctica is a brown seaweed from the cold coasts of the Southern Hemisphere. In Chile it has been eaten for generations under the name cochayuyo. That use gives its development something a new molecule lacks: a long record of human exposure that guides safety studies from the outset.

Dermovirox® keeps the extract as a complex system rather than reducing it to an isolated compound. Its value lies in how it is obtained, what it contains and how it is formulated: Algiddeon decisions that set it apart from both the raw material and the food.

DX-03

THE EVIDENCE

Activity against HSV-1 and HSV-2, including acyclovir-resistant viruses.

Castillo and colleagues (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and Universidad de Concepción) published in Frontiers in Microbiology (2020) a study of aqueous extracts of D. antarctica and another seaweed, Macrocystis pyrifera. These are their results for D. antarctica. [3]

In cell culture

The extract reduced HSV-1 and HSV-2 infection in two cell types, with half-maximal effective concentrations (EC₅₀) between 0.07 and 0.33 mg/mL.

Against resistant viruses

It remained active against acyclovir-resistant HSV variants, in HeLa cells and in human fibroblasts.

On skin

Formulated as a 5 mg/mL hydrogel and applied after infection in a murine model of cutaneous HSV-1, it showed a favourable course of cumulative lesion severity compared with vehicle and with a 5% acyclovir cream, and reduced viral load in the skin.

Assay system	Virus	EC₅₀ of the D. antarctica extract
HeLa cells	HSV-1	0.20 mg/mL
HeLa cells	HSV-2	0.08 mg/mL
Human gingival fibroblasts	HSV-1	0.07 mg/mL
Human gingival fibroblasts	HSV-2	0.33 mg/mL

EC₅₀: extract concentration that reduces viral focus-forming units by 50%. Castillo et al., 2020, fig. 3 and fig. 9. The results refer to the published experimental extract; Dermovirox® is Algiddeon’s development based on that research. [3]

Fractionation and time-of-addition experiments offer clues as to how the extract interferes with viral infection. Pinning down that mechanism is part of the development work.

Read the publication

DX-04

THE PROPOSITION

What Dermovirox® offers a pharmaceutical partner.

Differentiated efficacy

Documented antiviral activity that holds against acyclovir-resistant strains, in a locally acting product.

Natural identity

An origin that can be stated on the label and that patients recognise: an edible South Pacific seaweed.

Short production route

An extract obtained from renewable biomass, with no chemical synthesis chain.

Development options

Cold sores and genital herpes as possible indications, different topical formulations, and prescription or over-the-counter strategies depending on the partner’s portfolio.

DX-05

DEVELOPMENT

We build the technical package a partner needs to decide.

Algiddeon is working on the lines that turn a published result into an evaluable asset: characterisation and quality control of the extract, process standardisation, topical formulation, the relevant efficacy and safety studies, and the intellectual-property and regulatory development strategy.

The goal is to deliver an asset whose identity, quality and process are documented, so that a partner can take clinical, regulatory and industrial development forward with the information it needs.

Extract characterisation and qualityStandardised processTopical formulationEfficacy and safetyIntellectual property

Current stage: preclinical development

DX-06

EVALUATE DERMOVIROX®

We are looking for a partner to take Dermovirox® into the clinic and to market.

We talk with dermatology, antiviral, over-the-counter and consumer-health companies. The relationship can begin with a technical evaluation under confidentiality and progress to an option, a licence or co-development.

Request an evaluation Ways to partner Portfolio and next opportunities

DX-07

ALGIDDEON BIOTECH

We discover, develop as far as value is created, and transfer.

Algiddeon is a Chilean biotechnology company specialised in turning natural raw materials into pharmaceutical assets. It does not aim to travel the whole road to the patient alone: it concentrates its work where an opportunity becomes an evaluable asset, and takes it forward with companies that have clinical, regulatory and commercial capabilities.

Ways to partner

CO-01

HOW WE CREATE VALUE

Every development stage should increase the asset’s value for whoever takes it forward.

01

Discover

Identify raw materials and applications that combine potential efficacy with the advantages of natural origin. This is the work NEREO systematises.

02

Develop selectively

Take each opportunity to the point where a partner can evaluate it: evidence of activity, characterised extract, reproducible process, formulation and protection. We invest in what resolves the decisive uncertainty, not in completing stages for their own sake.

03

Transfer

License or co-develop with companies that bring clinical trials, registration, manufacturing at scale and market access.

This model makes it possible to work on several opportunities at once and not depend on a single asset. Each asset transferred leaves resources and knowledge for the next.

CO-02

PARTNERING WITH ALGIDDEON

Five ways to work together.

We work with dermatology and topical-therapy companies, pharmaceutical companies with development programmes, over-the-counter and consumer-health businesses, and investors specialised in biotechnology. The scope of each relationship is agreed case by case.

Technical evaluation

Access to an asset’s scientific and technical profile, under confidentiality, to assess its fit with the partner’s portfolio.

Option

A period of evaluation or joint work, with terms agreed before a licensing decision.

Licence

Transfer of development and commercialisation rights in the territories and uses agreed by the parties.

Co-development

Complementary capabilities to carry out studies, formulation or scale-up of an asset.

Discovery collaboration

Applying NEREO to a therapeutic area or type of raw material of interest to the partner.

Start a conversation Evaluate Dermovirox®

CO-03

HOW IT STARTS

From a first conversation to a concrete proposal.

01

First conversation

The partner’s objectives, therapeutic areas and type of asset of interest.

02

Non-confidential presentation

Profile of the opportunity and its strategic fit.

03

Technical exchange

Scientific and technical data under a confidentiality agreement.

04

Proposed structure

Evaluation, option, licence or co-development.

CO-04

ORIGIN

Chilean university research turned into a company.

Algiddeon was born from research on the antiviral activity of Chilean seaweeds carried out by teams at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and the Universidad de Concepción, published in 2020. [3] That research is the scientific origin of Dermovirox® and of the conviction that shaped the company: natural raw materials can give rise to competitive pharmaceutical assets when they are selected and developed with method.

Chile offers an extensive cold-water coastline, distinctive marine ecosystems and a long tradition of using its seaweeds. Our model starts there, but is not limited to it: we look for raw materials wherever knowledge and value exist.

Read the original research

CO-05

TEAM AND NETWORK

A core team that orchestrates specialised capabilities.

Algiddeon combines scientific and business leadership with a network of university researchers, analytical laboratories, formulation specialists, biomass suppliers and regulatory and intellectual-property advisers. Each opportunity is approached with the capabilities it requires, without sustaining infrastructure that only some would use.

CO-06

CONTACT

Let’s talk about a specific opportunity.

If you evaluate dermatology or antiviral assets, want to differentiate a portfolio with products of natural origin, or are interested in Algiddeon as an investment, write to us.

Contact Investors

CO-07

CONTACT

Let’s talk about a specific opportunity.

Tell us what interests you⁠—evaluating Dermovirox®, exploring a licence, collaborating on discovery or investing⁠—and we will direct your enquiry to the right team.

CT-01

Send us your enquiry

The more specific it is, the better we can direct our first reply.

CT-02

ALGIDDEON BIOTECH SPA

Chile. We handle professional enquiries from pharmaceutical companies, scientific partners and investors.

This form is not intended for medical enquiries or patient information.

CT-03

PUBLICATIONS AND REFERENCES

Publications and references

The research that gave rise to Dermovirox®, two notes that develop our approach, and every source cited on this site.

PU-01

ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Anti-herpetic Activity of Macrocystis pyrifera and Durvillaea antarctica Algae Extracts Against HSV-1 and HSV-2

Castillo E. et al. · Frontiers in Microbiology 11:2006 · 2020

A study of aqueous extracts of two Chilean seaweeds against HSV-1 and HSV-2, including acyclovir-resistant viruses: cell-based assays, fraction analysis and topical evaluation in a murine model of skin infection.

Read the article Dermovirox®

PU-02

NOTES

EXTRACTION TECHNOLOGY · October 2026

What it takes to turn an extract into a medicine.

Regulators already have a pathway for medicines that are complex mixtures. What they require explains why controlling the extract is part of the asset.

DISCOVERY · October 2026

Prior knowledge as the starting point for discovery.

Tens of thousands of species have documented medicinal uses. That knowledge does not predict a medicine, but it changes where it makes sense to start looking.

PU-03

SOURCES CITED ON THIS SITE

[1]Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Medicinal Plant Names Services, version 15 (2025): 41,878 plants and 422 medicinal or pharmaceutical sources. Open source ↗
[2]National Cancer Institute Program for Natural Product Discovery, analysis of the NCI-60 panel (2023): more than 150,000 crude extracts initially screened; 37,054 samples advanced to five-dose testing. Open source ↗
[3]Castillo E. et al. (2020). Anti-herpetic Activity of Macrocystis pyrifera and Durvillaea antarctica Algae Extracts Against HSV-1 and HSV-2. Frontiers in Microbiology 11:2006. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.02006. Open source ↗
[4]U.S. Food and Drug Administration. What is a Botanical Drug? Definition of botanical drug products (plants, algae, macroscopic fungi), the “totality of the evidence” approach to therapeutic consistency, and four approved products (three NDAs, one BLA). Content current as of 3 September 2026. Open source ↗
[5]Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. State of the World’s Plants 2017: 28,187 plant species with at least one recorded medicinal use. Open source ↗
[6]Khafagi I.K., Dewedar A. (2000). The efficiency of random versus ethno-directed research in the evaluation of Sinai medicinal plants for bioactive compounds. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 71(3):365–376. Open source ↗
[7]U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Botanical Drug Development: Guidance for Industry (2016). Open source ↗
[8]World Health Organization. Billions worldwide living with herpes (1 May 2020): in 2016, around 67% of people aged 0–49 were living with HSV-1 and around 13% of people aged 15–49 with HSV-2. Open source ↗
[9]Bacon T.H. et al. (2003). Herpes simplex virus resistance to acyclovir and penciclovir after two decades of antiviral therapy. Clinical Microbiology Reviews 16(1):114–128. Resistance prevalence ≈0.3% in immunocompetent and 4–7% in immunocompromised patients. Open source ↗
[10]Management of oral herpes simplex virus infections: The problem of resistance. A narrative review. Oral Diseases 30(3):877–894 (2024). DOI: 10.1111/odi.14635. Alternatives in acyclovir resistance: foscarnet and cidofovir. Open source ↗
[11]Pharmaceutical Technology. Pineapples and green tea: FDA turns to public for new approaches to botanical drugs. Indications and approval pathway of the four approved botanical drugs. Open source ↗
[12]Olate-Gallegos C. et al. (2019). Identification of Polyphenols from Chilean Brown Seaweeds Extracts by LC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS. Journal of Aquatic Food Product Technology 28(4):375–391. Phlorotannins from trimers to octamers identified in D. antarctica. Open source ↗

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EXTRACTION TECHNOLOGY · October 2026

What it takes to turn an extract into a medicine.

Regulators already have a pathway for medicines that are complex mixtures. What they require explains why controlling the extract is part of the asset.

Publications and references

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For much of the twentieth century, the road from plant to medicine ran through isolating its active compound. Morphine, quinine and, later, artemisinin followed that route. The implicit assumption was that a medicine had to be a single defined substance and that the complexity of the raw material was an obstacle to be removed.

Regulation revisited that assumption. The FDA published its first guidance for botanical drugs in 2004 and updated it in 2016. It defines these products as derived from plant materials, algae, macroscopic fungi or combinations of them, and recognises their distinctive features: heterogeneous mixtures, uncertainty about which components are active and, often, prior human experience. [4] [7]

That definition does not lower the bar; it moves it. If it cannot be shown that a single molecule explains the effect, it must be shown that every batch of the extract produces the same effect. The FDA calls this therapeutic consistency and proposes supporting it with the totality of the evidence: controls on the raw material⁠—including cultivation and collection practices⁠—, chemical testing and manufacturing controls, and biological assays and clinical data linked to the mechanism of action. [4]

For anyone developing an extract, this has three consequences. The raw material is part of the medicine. Species, provenance, season and method of harvesting shape the composition; that is why they must be specified and controlled. A chemical fingerprint is not enough. An analytical profile confirms that a batch resembles the previous ones; a biological potency assay confirms that it does the same thing. The process is part of the product. Changing the solvent, the temperature or the fractionation changes the extract, so a documented, reproducible process is as central as the composition.

To date, four botanical products have been approved by the FDA as prescription drugs: three as new drugs⁠—with sinecatechins, crofelemer and birch triterpenes as active ingredients⁠—and one as a biologic, anacaulase-bcdb. [4] Veregen®, Filsuvez® and NexoBrid® are applied to the skin or to wounds; Mytesi® is taken orally. [11] The topical route has so far been the most fertile ground for this kind of development.

This framework explains how Algiddeon works. Designing an extract includes, from the outset, the decisions that will make it possible to demonstrate its consistency: which chemical markers to track, which biological assay to use as a measure of potency, which process variables to fix and how to secure the supply of a raw material that is never identical. That work is not a formality after discovery: it is what turns an interesting activity into an asset a pharmaceutical company can develop.

It also explains where protection is created. A natural species cannot be patented as such, but the methods for obtaining a defined extract, the resulting compositions, their formulations and their uses can. Unpublished production know-how adds a further barrier. The complexity that makes it necessary to control the extract is the same complexity that makes it hard to copy.

Sources: [4] FDA, What is a Botanical Drug? · [7] FDA, Botanical Drug Development (2016) · [11] Pharmaceutical Technology, 2026

Technology · Dermovirox®

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DISCOVERY · October 2026

Prior knowledge as the starting point for discovery.

Tens of thousands of species have documented medicinal uses. That knowledge does not predict a medicine, but it changes where it makes sense to start looking.

Publications and references

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There are two extreme ways of searching nature for therapeutic activity. One is to screen systematically everything that can be collected, with no prior hypothesis. The other is to start from what human experience has already pointed to. The first guarantees breadth; the second, an informed starting point.

The best-known example of the first is the programme of the US National Cancer Institute. Its NCI-60 panel initially screened more than 150,000 crude natural extracts, of which 37,054 samples advanced to five-dose testing. [2] The scale shows that large collections of extracts can be organised and prioritised by activity. It also shows the cost of doing so without prior information: fewer than one in four samples passed the first stage.

The knowledge available for the second approach is enormous. In 2017, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew counted 28,187 plant species with at least one recorded medicinal use. [5] Its Medicinal Plant Names Services, in version 15 published in 2025, brings together references to 41,878 plants from 422 medicinal and pharmaceutical sources. [1] The two figures are not comparable⁠—they measure different datasets at different dates⁠—but both describe a repertoire no laboratory could ever test experimentally in full.

Does informed selection improve the yield of the search? A study of Sinai plants compared selection guided by traditional use with random selection in the search for antimicrobial activity, and found a higher proportion of active plants in the former. [6] It is a limited study, but it illustrates the principle on which ethnopharmacology rests: starting with information improves the yield of the early stages.

Traditional use, however, is only one of the pieces of information that matter. A plant with documented activity may be impossible to source, unstable when extracted, toxic at the required concentrations or already covered by third-party patents. Choosing well requires assessing at the same time potential efficacy, safety knowledge, extraction feasibility, supply, differentiation and room for protection.

That is NEREO’s role: to bring that information together, relate it and apply explicit criteria before the first experiment. The model does not replace experimentation; it decides which experiments are worth resourcing and which question each one must answer. Data technology extends how many sources and raw materials can be examined; the criteria remain scientific.

The result is a form of discovery that looks less like screening and more like a portfolio of informed decisions. Every opportunity discarded in time frees resources; every result, favourable or not, improves the next selection.

Sources: [1] Kew, MPNS v15 (2025) · [2] NCI-60, 2023 analysis · [5] Kew, State of the World’s Plants 2017 · [6] Khafagi & Dewedar, 2000

NEREO · Opportunity

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LEGAL INFORMATION

Privacy policy

Last updated: October 2026

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1. Controller. Algiddeon Biotech SpA, a company incorporated in Chile, is responsible for processing the information that people voluntarily provide through the contact channels enabled on this site. The controller’s contact details will be available in the Contact section and kept up to date.

2. Data we may receive. If a person uses the professional form, we may receive their name, company or organisation, role, email address, country, topic of interest and the content of the message. The technical operation of the site may generate minimal security logs, such as access date, IP address, user agent and abuse-prevention data, depending on the infrastructure used.

3. Purpose of processing. We use the data to receive, manage and respond to enquiries; to organise professional communications about research, development, collaboration or investment; to protect the operation of the site; and to comply with applicable legal obligations. We do not use form data to sell personal information.

4. Basis and responsible use. Submitting an enquiry implies the decision to provide the information needed to receive a reply. Where specific authorisation is required for additional communications, we will request it separately.

5. Recipients and providers. Data may be processed by technology providers offering hosting, form handling, security and communication services on Algiddeon’s behalf, subject to the applicable confidentiality and protection terms. We do not publish the messages we receive or pass them to third parties for their own advertising.

6. Retention. We keep information for as long as reasonably necessary to respond to enquiries, maintain a professional record of conversations and comply with legal obligations. Once it is no longer needed, we will delete or anonymise it as appropriate.

7. Rights and requests. People may request access, rectification, erasure or other measures regarding their data, in accordance with applicable law. Requests can be submitted through the channels published under Contact, with the subject “Personal data”.

8. Security. We apply proportionate technical and organisational measures to protect data against unauthorised access, loss or improper disclosure. No internet-connected system can guarantee the complete absence of incidents.

9. External links. The site may link to scientific publications, regulatory resources and third-party pages. The privacy policies of those sites are independent of Algiddeon.

10. Cookies and analytics. The site will use only the technical cookies needed to operate until an analytics or third-party service configuration is approved. If tools requiring additional information or consent are added, this policy and the interface will be updated before they are activated.

11. Changes. This policy may be updated to reflect operational or regulatory changes. The date of the latest update is shown at the top of the document.

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LEGAL INFORMATION

Terms of use

Last updated: October 2026

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1. Ownership. This site is operated by Algiddeon Biotech SpA, Chile. Its purpose is to present corporate, scientific and business information about the company, its discovery model and partnership opportunities.

2. Nature of the content. The site describes perspectives, research activities, development programmes and pharmaceutical opportunities. References to assets in development and their possible applications do not constitute treatment instructions, medical advice or offers of approved products or products available to patients.

3. Intellectual property. Names, trademarks, texts, design, graphic elements and other proprietary content belong to their respective owners and are protected by applicable law. Third-party information and trademarks are used, where appropriate, for identification or reference purposes, without implying sponsorship or commercial association.

4. Permitted use. You may consult the site and share links with reference to their source. Substantial reproduction, commercial exploitation or transformation of proprietary elements requires the legally applicable authorisation.

5. Scientific information. External publications and references are provided to facilitate access to the original sources. The results mentioned correspond to the studies and experimental systems identified in each case.

6. Third-party links. Algiddeon does not permanently control the content, availability or policies of linked external sites.

7. Communications. Sending a message through the form does not in itself constitute a commercial agreement, an obligation to collaborate, an acceptance of confidentiality or an advisory relationship.

8. Updates. Algiddeon may modify the information on the site to reflect the progress of its activities and opportunities. The date of the latest update to these terms is shown on this page.

9. Contact. For questions about these terms, please use the channels listed on the Contact page.

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