The company's underlying technology is built around dendrimers – a type of synthetic nanoscale polymer that is highly regular in size and structure and well suited to pharmaceutical uses.

Starpharma has three core development programs: VivaGel portfolio, DEP drug delivery, and agrochemicals with the company developing a number of products internally and others via commercial partnerships.

There are two operating companies, Starpharma Pty Ltd in Australia and Dendritic Nanotechnologies, Inc. in USA, both with a comprehensive intellectual property portfolio.

Founded in 1996, Starpharma listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2000 (ASX: SPL). Starpharma securities also trade in the US under the American Depository Receipts (ADR) program, and are listed on the OCTQX platform (OTCQX:SPHRY). OTCQX is the premium tier of the US Over-the-Counter (OTC) marketplace, providing non-US companies with a visible cross-listing to access US investors, without the duplicative regulatory costs required of listing on a traditional US exchange.

In September 2015, it signed a licensing agreement with AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN), enabling the development and commercialization by AstraZeneca of compounds directed at a defined family of targets using Starpharma’s DEP drug delivery technology, adding to previous accords between the two companies.