Urah Transdermal

Dr. Jonathan Obaje, Research Director, Urah Transdermal Pte Ltd

24 February 2011

By Ai San Yip, Rachel Leow and Erwin Chan
Guest Interviewer Mee Yin Wong

Dr. Obaje is a gem with an amiable personality. He is also reputed for his R&D breakthrough in transdermal technology.

Urah Transdermal focuses on the research, development and commercialisation of transdermal creams. The company uses its patented, nature-base (natural), transdermal technology in various bio-safe formulations. Urah Transdermal is the first company which has successfully commercialised its Micellar Transdermal drug delivery system with the release of Glucosamine JointCare Cream.

1. Could you share with us your story and the motivation behind Urah Transdermal?

My first degree was in Industrial Chemistry. My Master’s degree was in Theoretical Chemistry and PhD in Surfactant (Formulation) Science. I came to Singapore to start a venture with Prof. Lee Chee Wee at Science Park II in 2000. Prior to this, I was a post-doctoral fellow with the Universiti Putra Malaysia, and lecturer in Physical Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the University of Jos and University of Bradford, respectfully. I then worked at A*STAR, Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences (as part of Lynk Biotechnologies’ obligations) where I helped to develop new manufacturing scale-up processes. Hence, I was in Jurong Island for two years as a Consultant Scientist.

Together with Prof Lee, we launched Lynk Biotechnologies Pte Ltd in Year 2000. During the period from Year 2001 to 2002, we went through a tough time, attempting to raise money from venture capitalists and struggling to survive as a young academic start-up.

In 2002, Lynk Biotechnologies tried to bring a hair cream to the market. This was an early trial product and project. The hair cream project did not yield much for the Company. Instead, the formula for the Transdermal Glucosamine Cream (TGC) came along in 2003. I started to foster some hopes for the company to turn around with more functional and diverse product offerings through stronger research. However, there was too much commercial pressure on me to deliver the final product even though there was not enough research done to realise the full potential of the transdermal glucosamine cream.  Lynk Biotechnologies, BioLyn Pte Ltd and, later MediLynk Pte Ltd undertook the commercialisation and marketing strategies of the hair cream and first generation transdermal products. (First generations of the transdermal-based products were launched in 2003).

There were many technical problems with the first generation products, which I made known to the management, and went on to do more research on it. Unfortunately, when the better and optimized formula was developed, the new management of Lynk Biotechnologies had lost interest. By 2005, there was a syndicate of new investors that came on board Lynk Biotechnologies. More capital flowed in during the second half of 2005 but these new inventors were not interested to pursue the transdermal technology or its R&D direction. At that point, I felt the conviction to move out of Lynk Biotechnologies to develop and create a more robust transdermal delivery technology. I needed to continue the fundamental work related to both the intellectual properties (IPs) and data sets. The optimized TGC formula was finalized in 2006 and released as Urah Micellar TGC. Parallel to the formulation experiments, I also worked with the Health Science Authority (HSA) to develop their in-house analytical protocol for quantifying glucosamine in creams.  It was a combination of all these thorough analytical results and physical tests that built my confidence with the final formula. I must say here that it was all about timing, confidence, and endurance! And very soon, the formula and idea crystallized into the blueprint for Urah as a start-up in Singapore.

2. So, you have the final TGC formula, what happened after that?

In 2009, Minister Inderjit Singh came on board as our investor. He evaluated our technology and IPs. We injected the IPs in Urah Transdermal Company. We also used the company as an enabling means to generate other formulations using our transdermal delivery technology as a platform. We developed an end-to-end system whereby you give us your molecule-of-interest andthen we design the vehicle to deliver your molecule-of-interest transdermally. We now see a transdermal formulation pattern which hopefully will enable us to develop many more transdermal products and devices. 

3. Tell us more about Transdermal Technology.

Transdermal technology has many potential and interesting applications. The basics of Urah transdermal technology is an integration of three core sciences (i) the chemistry of surface active agents (ii) skin biology and (iii) pharmacology. The innovation is in how the integration is structured to give the desired product and effects.

It all started with my interest in bio-surfactants that ware biologically degradable and renewable surface-active agents (detergents or emulsifiers in layman’s terms). I started from developing oleo-chemicals (chemicals derived from vegetable oils) due to its usage in our everyday lives. You have surface-active agents in virtually every fast-food, beverages and household products such as toothpaste, shampoo, body lotion, and so on. Unfortunately most of the surface-active agents currently used in the industry are sourced from petrochemicals and less friendly. To produce eco-friendly bio-surfactants derived from natural renewable resources is very tough R&D work!

Urah’s foundation patents cover some of these bio-surfactants and how they are used to create hydrophilic-lipophilic balance. This is a bit of biochemistry. Oil naturally does not mix with water but will mix with the presence of surfactants. How much of oil and water can be mixed together depends on the properties of the surface-active agents used? If you create the right balance between polarity and non-polarity, you can have manipulation in the different surface tensions of each substrate and agent. You can also create different profiles of hypophilic and lipophilic ratios and values.

In addition to the formulation dynamics which Urah bio-surfactants have enabled, the bio-surfactant we have created and patented is totally edible! Urah bio-surfactants are derived from sucrose, glucose and vegetable oils.

4. What are some of the scientific challenges of a Glucosamine-based product? 

The public interest in glucosamine arose in the 1960’s where biochemists discovered that when glucosamine was introduced into live animal cells in vitro, the cells proliferated and grew well. These researchers concluded that glucosamine modulated chondrocyte proliferation in dishes. The pharmaceutical companies took the business out of this concept in the 1980s. An early group of businessmen assumed that because the in vitro results were impressive, glucosamine should do similarly well as oral supplements. Pharmaceutical companies made various compounds, such as glucosamine sulphate and other glucosamine acid-derivatives to be delivered in the form of powders and capsules. The assumption that glucosamine could be supplemented by just swallowing glucosamine must have been too naive.

The explosion about glucosamine “therapy” in the market came about when U.S. FDA classified glucosamine as a dietary supplement which allowed for it to be sold as an over-the-counter (OTC) product. Thereafter, in the 198090’s, most pharmaceutical companies were selling glucosamine as joint-pain and joint-care supplements. It was a booming business. Until early 2000, the National Institute of Health (NIH) piloted a clinical trial to take a look at the use of glucosamine and another common oral co-supplement chondroitin to see if people are getting any pain relief. Their findings were not encouraging. They found clinically insignificant differences between the placebo and glucosamine and these results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2006. There was another recent study led by Dr Peter Juni of the University of Bern Switzerland. According to Dr Peter Juni, "None of the two supplements (glucosamine & Chondroitin) evaluated appears to have any clinically relevant benefit in terms of pain relief that could be detected by patients with knee or hip arthritis".

Low-bioavailability is the bane of orally administered glucosamine. Oral ingestion is currently the popular route of administration of glucosamine. But researches have now shown that effective intra-articular concentrations may not be achieved by oral route Three recent studies, using horse and human models, have quantified the serum levels of free glucosamine after administration of clinically relevant dosages of glucosamine. These studies concluded that insignificant trace amounts of glucosamine enter human serum after oral ingestion and that this amount is far below any amount that could make significant therapeutic contribution.

In addition to low bioavailability, the use of high oral dose of glucosamine has been associated with several drawbacks including gastrointestinal toxicity due to hyperacidity and instability as glucosamine is easily metabolized into therapeutically inactive glucose by-products when taken orally.

Transdermal delivery of glucosamine also has its own challenges. Glucosamine compounds naturally break emulsions and it is difficult to blend therapeutically significant concentrations of glucosamine into a cream. Many brands of glucosamine creams in the market today lack efficacy because they do not contain enough concentration of glucosamine. Most brands do not indicate glucosamine concentrations on their packaging. Even more challenging is the transdermal transportation of glucosamine across skin layers. It requires careful molecular engineering to enable effective absorption through skin layers.

Urah Micellar Transdermal drug delivery system provides a patient-friendly and a better controlled drug-release mechanism which is cost-effective to the patient. And the patients do not have to go through the usual pains of drug administration any more. Urah Transdermal technology avoids the numerous side effects such as gastric toxicity, nausea, vomiting, constipation, and the poor bioavailability which are associated with oral administrations.

Urah Micellar Transdermal Glucosamine Cream has already been accepted as a unique Singapore Technology product in many countries, including Japan and Germany, where Urah Micellar Transdermal Glucosamine Cream is now sold.

We have a number of potential products in our research pipeline. However, we are cautious. You do not release product just like that … Having been in the commercial world, we now understand that there are some a basic things to be done before product launch. It is never like, “Oh, I can formulate this product. So, I can launch it now”. We are mindful to find the right partner to take it on ...

Editors Note: Dr. Obaje then related to us his personal experience and customer testimonials with Urah Micellar Transdermal Glucosamine Cream. We were touched and moved by his passion behind his transdermal technology and discoveries … 

Returning to the basics of natural ingredients discovery and optimisation of glucosamine’s bioavailability may be a more forward-thinking approach that Urah Transdermal has adopted in their practice.

5. Is the atmosphere conducive for scientific research? What needs to be improved to harness the potential of the research done in Singapore?

Singapore is indeed a wonderful place to do scientific research. I enjoyed my days as a researcher and I long to return soon to the lab. Honestly speaking, I think scientists should not try to do business, it is not the way. I would rather recommend strategic blending of businessmen and the scientists. Let the people who know how to do business – do the business activities. Gone were the days of all-in-one and one-in-all businessmen. The contemporary market is very sophisticated, and it requires a collection of many talents in the team that is highly focused. Businessmen who would rather take everything from the scientist and push the scientists off are doomed to fail. Also the scientists who want to double as businessman and scientist will not go far. 

I have to admit, I am not a business guy. I am a scientist at heart. I do not pretend that I know how to run a business. I am trying my best to do things the right way and hoping that I can find the right business team indexed for our future international growth.

There has to be a synergy that involves a new way of thinking which helps to free the scientists from doing business-related work in a start-up. Then, the scientist can generate products with the right quality and price that can withstand international market competition. 

There is a need to generate actions and ideas to foster the organisational behavior between groups of businessmen and scientists. There must be a way to blend the two groups with less friction. This, currently, is the missing link!

There are a lot of technologies out there which "die" prematurely. These technologies could have been able to “fly” internationally. Only few are lucky to have the right mix of the two core groups of people. Personally, I think, there has to be some shaken-ups in this industry!

6. If there is one word of advice you can give to aspiring technopreneurs who are looking to start their business in biomedical industry, what would that be?

I think, successful technopreneurs are the ones who are willing to share the responsibilities (and the space) with the right group of business people. The commercial success depends a lot on the trust and confidence created from the mixes of these groups.

It is not enough to have the Sciences; neither is it enough to have the capital and investing knowledge. There has to be a marriage of the two! 

The current challenges in the international markets are that you will need people who are very good in their own ways to work together in the company or start-up. If you have the technology, and you are a scientist who thinks that you alone can bring the technology to the market, this is going to be a huge challenge! At the same time, if you have the money, and you think you are looking for a good technology to buy over, and you do not believe in the people approach, you will soon be faced with the reality of contemporary world – we must all learn to work together.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ai San Yip at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it    and Erwin Chan at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it