Pharma’s festive fixes: the biotech guide to getting through the holidays

The holiday period promises an opportunity to kick back, spend quality time with loved ones and eat our bodyweight in roast potatoes, but it also means negotiating extended family stays, synchronising six side-dishes to emerge from the oven at once, and, perhaps worst of all, the dreaded Christmas shopping trip.

With these stresses in mind, it seemed only fair to see what the pharma sector is doing to keep us functional through December.

Those of us familiar with the headache that follows one too many glasses of Baileys will be pleased to know that biochemists are taking a pragmatic approach to hangover cures: EP4613265A1 and EP4591854A1 describe formulations for speeding the breakdown of ethanol and its more troublesome intermediate, acetaldehyde. Meanwhile, WO2025195176A1 describes a ‘hangover alleviating probiotic’ promising to do the same, helping you keep the ball rolling from Christmas Eve straight through to New Year. Psst… did you know that Baileys has its own patents for its “cream based liqueurs?” (US4957765A).

EP4461741A1 tackles the issue of over-drinking earlier in the process, engineering yeast strains that ferment with markedly reduced ethanol output whilst promising to preserve flavour. A low-alcohol beer that still tastes like the real thing could be just the thing to help rowdy relatives slow their roll without noticing.

For anyone navigating a busy festive schedule, juggling timing the Christmas roast, ensuring the turkey is perfectly cooked, or ticking off the last of the present list, it may be reassuring to know that R&D in anxiolytics continues to advance. The wellness sector is also introducing increasingly accessible ways to maintain focus and balance during the season, from cannabis-lion’s-mane blends designed to support relaxation (US2025325610A1) to chewable shots delivering botanical actives (EP4623702A1). Perfect companions for keeping the mood bright, especially when the family board games enter their final rounds.

Finally, in news that may help your belt buckle recover faster than your liver: metabolic meds remain firmly at the top of pharma’s NICE list. GLP‑1 receptor agonists like semaglutide have become household names, but the innovation sleigh is now packed with next-gen contenders. Dual-agonists and triple-agonists are pushing weight loss into bariatric territory, whilst oral formulations aim to deliver GLP‑1-like effects without the needle, making metabolic maintenance as simple as popping a pill (or a pig-in-blanket).

Whether it’s mood-boosting botanicals to get through Monopoly with the in-laws, a probiotic to pre-empt prosecco regret, or a GLP‑1 pill to offset the festive weight gain, perhaps a consequence-free Christmas is on the horizon. So whether your festive coping strategies are pharmacological, traditional, or a tactical mix of both, it is reassuring to know that science is doing its bit to get us through the season. Wishing all our clients, colleagues and friends a very merry, and at least moderately manageable, Christmas.