Levagen and dispersion technology

Levagen is the trade name Gencor Pacific uses for its palmitoylethanolamide. Levagen+ is the same ingredient carried in a dispersion system called LipiSperse, a coating meant to help a fat-like powder mix with water. Most of the Australian trials in this database, and all of the Gencor-funded ones, used one of these two.

The absorption study

Briskey 2020 gave 28 healthy volunteers a single 300 mg dose of either Levagen+ or plain palmitoylethanolamide. The dispersion form gave 1.75 times the plasma exposure over four hours, with a higher and earlier peak. Three things to weigh: the comparison was with plain powder, not with a micronised form; the two products went to two separate groups of 14 rather than the same people on both; and the authors say four hours of sampling was too short. The makers funded the study.

That is the whole published basis for the phrase “increased absorption” on Levagen+ labels. Whether more in the blood means more effect is a separate question that no trial has tested by comparing the two forms on a clinical outcome.

Trials that used Levagen or Levagen+

Doses ranged from 150 mg as a drink to 700 mg a day. Each page states the funding.

• Sleep: Rao 2021.
• Knee pain: Steels 2019 (Levagen, 300 and 600 mg a day).
• Menstrual pain: Rao 2025 (single 300 mg doses at pain onset).
• Allergic rhinitis: Briskey 2023 (main outcome no different from placebo).
• Exercise recovery: Mallard 2020, Huschtscha 2024, Schouten 2026.
• Memory and BDNF in healthy adults: Kim 2024.
• Stress markers: Deb 2025.
• Eczema, as a 1.5% cream: Rao 2024.
• Dogs and cats with joint pain: Briskey 2026.

Search Levagen for the full list, or Gencor for the funding trail.

Pattern across these trials

They share a design: randomised, placebo-controlled, usually 8 weeks, run by one contract research group in Brisbane, with recruitment by telehealth. That is a stronger design than most of the older open-label work. They also share a funder, which is the reason each page here names it. Two of them, on allergic rhinitis and on exercise soreness, report no difference from placebo on the main outcome, and both are listed with that result.

Regulatory note for Australia

Levagen was the ingredient first accepted for use in listed medicines by the TGA, in late 2019. See status in Australia.