AlzeCure Pharma AB (publ) (FN STO: ALZCUR), a pharmaceutical company that develops a broad portfolio of drug candidates for diseases affecting the central nervous system, with projects in both Alzheimer’s disease and pain, today announced that the company has received positive preclinical in vivo effect data for the pain project TrkA-NAM.
AlzeCure's preclinical pain project TrkA-NAM is based on the company's research platform Painless and focuses on the treatment of severe pain conditions, such as osteoarthritis of the joints. In a recently completed in vivo efficacy study, TrkA-NAM has shown positive effects in a preclinical pain model.
“We are very happy to be able, as promised, to present effect data from our exciting pain project TrkA-NAM. The results are promising, even though they are in a preclinical stage, and I am very much looking forward to the continued development of the project,” said Martin Jönsson, CEO of AlzeCure Pharma AB.
“Just like our other projects in the CNS field, TrkA-NAM is focused on an area where there is a great need for more effective treatments. There is also a great demand in the pain area to be able to replace opioids, which initiate addiction problems. There are today an estimated 250 million patients suffering from osteoarthritis and a great need for more effective and tolerable drugs as an alternative to today's existing treatments, which mainly consist of opioids or NSAIDS. The great market potential in severe pain conditions such as osteoarthritis, together with the fact that TrkA-NAM is based on a biological mechanism with strong preclinical and clinical validation, has meant that we have already seen great interest from potential partners”.
The objective of the TrkA-NAM pain project is to develop a TrkA-Negative Allosteric Modulator (NAM) that can reduce movement-induced and spontaneous pain in patients with severe pain conditions. The target mechanism has strong preclinical and clinical validation, and AlzeCure's unique compounds aim to differentiate from antibody treatments with their selective effect on the relevant signaling pathway so that optimal analgesic effect can be achieved without inducing side effects.
In addition, the TrkA-NAM compounds are small molecules, which both facilitates administration for the patient (tablet form) while also contributing to a more cost-effective treatment.