Pain

If approved, VER-01 would be the first cannabinoid-based therapy for chronic low back pain.

The neuromodulation space is quickly filling with well-funded companies that have demonstrated early signs of success. However, with strategics seemingly unwilling to spend on novel technologies and pharma desperate to maintain its foothold in CNS, these companies will face many challenges.

The neuromodulation space is quickly filling with well-funded companies that have demonstrated early signs of success. However, with strategics seemingly unwilling to spend on novel technologies and pharma desperate to maintain its foothold in CNS, these companies will face many challenges.

Tris Pharma may be making headlines for its novel pain medication cebranopadol, but the New Jersey-based company's story extends far beyond a single asset.

PharmaTher’s intravenous ketamine product Ketarx was just approved by the US FDA for surgical pain management. As it searches for commercial partners before the year ends, the firm now looks to enjoy the regulatory incentives and market exclusivity of orphan diseases.

Rapport Therapeutics CEO discusses the company's novel approach to AMPA modulation and why strategic externalization from J&J is accelerating neuroscience innovation.

Akelos is developing a first-in-class, non-addictive HCN1 inhibitor for peripheral neuropathic pain, based on anesthesiology research from Weill Cornell. The compound is designed to avoid the brain and heart, and has shown strong preclinical efficacy and safety with NIH backed development underway.

Vertex is in need of diversification, but in addition to its lower-than-expected Q1 revenue, sales of the company’s newest CF drug Alyftrek and pain medicine Journavx disappointed.

With sales of $550m last year and a high barrier to entry, Exparel marks an intriguing target for abbreviated new drug application sponsors. Having shot down a US patent last year and won US FDA approval for its ANDA, Jiangsu Hengrui’s US eVenus Pharmaceutical Laboratories subsidiary and partner Fresenius Kabi have just reached a settlement agreement.

Vertex has the first-in-class NaV1.8 inhibitor for acute pain, Journavx, but Latigo plans to bring forward multiple best-in-class options for acute and chronic pain against NaV1.8 and other targets.

XGene's pain candidate has shown positive results in a US bunionectomy trial and the Chinese company is also eyeing chronic and cancer pain indications for its contender, which may provide a competitor to Vertex's suzetrigine.

The NaV1.8 inhibitor showed a statistically significant change from baseline in lumbosacral radiculopathy pain, but it was the same as the reduction in the study’s placebo arm.