Since 2010

Company overview.

Aquavit Pharmaceuticals was established on 20 October 2010 to improve patients' health, maximize the efficiency of the medical community, and support the pharmacoeconomics of payers — through personalized medicine and modern delivery.

Who we are

A high-technology biotechnology company in specialty medicine — and beyond.

At the center is a platform that determines what an individual patient should receive, prepares it at the point of care, and carries the record forward. Drugs, biologics and delivery devices are built around it.

Specialty medicine is where the company's programs sit today — neuroscience, oncology, dermatology, aesthetics and immunology — but the platforms beneath them are not confined to it. A delivery mechanism, a preparation system and an evidence engine are indifferent to therapeutic area; they go wherever the constraint they solve is binding.

The founding insight was that a treatment should be decided and compounded for the individual patient at the moment of care, and that each event should be recorded so the next decision is better informed than the last. That is the platform: MAV-403, the evidence and intelligence engine, and APOLLO™ (PITO-001), the Personalized Injection Treatment Optimizer that acts on it. The founding patent family, whose earliest priority date is January 2011, covers that system.

Delivery is what the platform acts through, and the company protects that end as well: a patented microchannel geometry, a portfolio of formulations built to travel through it, and further routes under development. These are outputs of the platform rather than the platform itself — the architecture is indifferent to which one a given treatment requires. Intellectual property is held across the optimizer, formulation science, device technology and method of delivery, granted internationally.

Manufacturing and research capability is provided by Aquavit Life Sciences, which operates in South Korea and the United States.

Incorporated20 Oct 2010
DomicileDelaware
Intellectual propertyGlobal
DisciplinesMultiple
Mission

The three Ps.

01

Patients

Therapies that reach the tissue that needs them, at a dose that limits what the rest of the body has to absorb — and that a patient can tolerate long enough to finish.

02

Providers

Tools that let a physician personalize treatment at the point of care, with control over what is delivered, how deep, and in what concentration.

03

Payers

Delivery that reduces the dose required and the adverse events that follow — a pharmacoeconomic argument, not only a clinical one.

Clinical leadership

Scientific and clinical leadership.

Chief Medical Officer

Churl-Su Kwon
MD, DPhil, MPH

Also Chief Executive Officer, Aquavit Life Sciences (Korea)

A neurosurgeon and clinical neuroscientist, directing Aquavit's medical and clinical programs.

Medical degree from University College London; doctorate (DPhil) from the University of Oxford; Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. Neurosurgical training at King's College London and Leeds General Infirmary, with fellowships in epilepsy clinical research, in neurosurgery and neurophysiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and in health services research at Mount Sinai.

He holds a current academic appointment at Columbia University as Assistant Professor of Neurological Sciences — in Neurology, in Epidemiology, in Neurological Surgery, and in the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center.

His research concerns outcomes research in the clinical neurosciences, epidemiological and health services research, clinical informatics, randomized neurosurgical trials and neurophysiology — the same questions of evidence, access and measured outcome that the company's intelligence platform was built to address.

NeurosurgeryClinical neuroscienceEpidemiologyHealth services research
Corporate history

Fifteen years on the record.

Announcements, patent grants, transactions and judicial outcomes, in sequence.

2026Appointment
Aquavit Life Sciences, Inc. Appoints Churl-Su Kwon, MD, DPhil, MPH, as Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Kwon, Chief Medical Officer of Aquavit Pharmaceuticals, takes executive leadership of the Korean manufacturing and research company alongside his clinical role. A neurosurgeon and clinical neuroscientist, he holds a current academic appointment at Columbia University as Assistant Professor of Neurological Sciences.

  • Places clinical and scientific leadership directly over manufacturing and research
  • Medical degree, University College London; DPhil, University of Oxford; MPH, Harvard School of Public Health
2025Acquisition
Aquavit Pharmaceuticals Acquires Axon Technologies AG, Expanding Global Artificial Intelligence and Life-Science Capabilities

Axon Technologies AG — formerly Genève Technologies, founded in Geneva in 2022 and redomiciled to Zug — develops and commercializes applications and technologies in artificial intelligence for the life-science and pharmaceutical sectors. The acquisition brings that capability in-house and sets the direction for specialty pharmaceuticals and AI integration.

  • Capabilities acquired: predictive modeling, drug-discovery pipelines, AI-powered PITO (Personalized Injection Treatment Optimizer), clinical-trial data analysis, and an AI-powered global commercial healthcare platform
  • Extraordinary shareholders' resolutions passed 23 September 2025; surviving entity named Aquavit Pharmaceuticals AG; new Articles of Association adopted
  • Certified by Kaiser Odermatt & Partners, notary of the Canton of Zug
  • Stated intent: to accelerate drug and device development, optimize global medical logistics and commercialization, and advance AI-driven healthcare
2023Regulatory & judicial
FDA Clears Two Investigational New Drug Applications for Aquavit's Botulinum Toxin Program; Federal Court Enters Judgment Against Counterfeiters

A year in which the company's science entered the clinic and its intellectual property was upheld in court.

  • Two investigational new drug applications cleared by the FDA
  • IND filed for a botulinum toxin with microchannel technology for palmar hyperhidrosis
  • Judgment entered in the Southern District of New York on trademark infringement, counterfeiting and defamation, with sanctions and permanent injunctive relief
  • WIPO publishes methods for delivering bioactive compositions and formulations to the skin
  • Named a leading innovator in microneedle-based drug delivery for the medical devices industry
  • Research grant to the Institute for Botulinum Toxin Research; smart skin analyzer platform launched
2022Enforcement
Federal Court Imposes Permanent Ban on Counterfeit Product; Aquavit Submits Investigational New Drug Application for DTX-021
  • Judgment imposing a permanent ban on the manufacture and sale of counterfeit product
  • Continued enforcement in the United States following an earlier victory in Europe
  • Named one of thirty most innovative companies to watch
  • Industry collaboration with the American Academy of Dermatology on representation in the specialty
2021Transaction
Aquavit Affiliate Enters Exclusive North American License and Supply Agreement with Huons BioPharma for a Botulinum Toxin Asset

Covering the United States and Canada, and bringing together Huons' biologic asset and manufacturing capability with Aquavit's North American development experience, intellectual property, precision-delivery technologies and professional network. Huons publicly characterized the arrangement at the time as up to approximately KRW 400 billion in potential scale, in royalties and milestone payments over a ten-year term.

  • In-licensing of botulinum toxin type A asset DTX-021
  • AQV-1122 vaccine delivery patent granted fast-track designation by the USPTO
  • Novel route-of-administration patent granted; injectable vitamin compositions patent issued
  • Trademark case won before the European Union Intellectual Property Office
  • Pre-IND meeting granted by the FDA; GMP facility expansion
2020Platform
Aquavit Files Self-Administrable Vaccine Delivery Method and Technology; Vaccine Delivery Platform Patent Granted Fast-Track Designation
  • Platform technology addressing COVID-19 presented at the BIO International Convention
  • Patents filed for exosome delivery via microchannel technology and for a method to treat macular degeneration
  • Court order on compensatory sanctions against counterfeiters
  • Personalized skin health digital interface invented; clinical-grade sterilized hyaluronic acid serum launched
  • Tenth anniversary of the company's founding
2018 – 2019Manufacturing
Aquavit Acquires Second GMP Manufacturing Facility and Initiates Oncology Programs
  • ACK-122 and BCC-903 development initiated
  • AQR-924 patent filed; PITO-002 prototype completed
  • Positive interim data from the iMicrotox™ trial; positive anesthesia delivery results
  • FDA site inspection completed; successful legal action against counterfeiters
2017Patent granted
United States Patent Granted for the APOLLO™ Platform, Following the European Grant

US 9,675,519 — system and method for personalized injection treatment — covering the automated preparation of a customized injectable combination for an individual patient, with digital recording of dose and formulation. Earliest priority in the family dates to January 2011.

  • GMP manufacturing facility acquired in South Korea
  • IBX series formulation patent granted; AQT-004 regulatory pathway established
  • iMicrotox™ trial IRB approval received; FDA inspection completed
2015 – 2016Patent granted
European Patent Granted for the APOLLO™ Platform
  • EP 2667965 granted July 2016, with the equivalent granted in South Korea in 2015
2014Commercialization
Aquavit Launches AQT-001 at the American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting and Establishes Manufacturing in South Korea

The first configuration of the microchannel delivery series reached market, and the company established the manufacturing base that would supply it.

  • Memorandum of understanding signed with the city authority in South Korea
  • Manufacturing facility established in South Korea
  • A further configuration of the delivery series prototyped
2013Licensing
Aquavit Signs Big-Data Platform Licensing Agreement with Dassault Systèmes (Accelrys)
  • Fifteen additional patents filed
  • AQT-001 and AQT-002 developed; IBX-001 stability testing completed
2012Merger & incorporation
Aquavit Pharmaceuticals Completes Strategic Merger and Incorporates in Delaware

Founded in New York in 2010, the company completed a strategic merger in 2012 and incorporated in Delaware — the jurisdiction in which the substantial majority of United States pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are organized. The step consolidated the corporate structure ahead of the founding patent family and the company's first institutional relationships.

2011 – 2012Foundational filings
Aquavit Files Its Founding Patent Family and Establishes the Regulatory Pathway
  • PITO-001 patent submitted; earliest priority date January 2011
  • IBX-001 / SBX-012 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway established; formulation patent submitted
  • Pre-IDE submission to the FDA completed
  • Corporate Strategic and Scientific Advisory Board established
Hired to the PITO project — the founding technical team
Thomas Benjamin
Vice President, Technology
A computer scientist trained at ETH Zürich, with a doctorate from Yale.
Kwonsoo Chun, PhD
Chief Engineer
PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Stanford. Named as a co-inventor on US 9,675,519 and US 10,106,278 — the founding patent of the platform and its continuation.
2010Founded
Aquavit Pharmaceuticals Founded in New York

Founded on 20 October 2010 in New York around a vision of individualized healthcare — to improve patients' health, maximize the efficiency of the medical community, and support the pharmacoeconomics of payers.

The group

The Aquavit Group of Companies.

Across the Americas, Europe and Asia, the companies carrying the Aquavit name advance one body of protected science — developing, manufacturing and delivering personalized medicine, and expanding into each market where that science can reach patients. Each company holds focus in its own discipline; all are held to a single scientific standard.

See all companies
Operating since
2010
Fifteen years of continuous development, under one scientific standard.