pain therapy market

Current State

A woman with a headache

The pain therapy market » Current state

Increasingly growing market

Neuropathic pain affects up to ten percent of the population in Europe and the USA. It has highly detrimental effects on quality of life, impairing everyday activities, social functioning as well as physical well-being. Neuropathic pain can be so severe that some patients are not even able to wear regular clothes.

Market growth is driven by a globally ageing population with an increasing prevalence of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, which is one common cause of neuropathic pain. Other common causes are injuries, chemotherapy and shingles.

Insufficient treatments, life-threatening side effects

There are currently no pain-relieving drugs explicitly developed for neuropathic pain. Current treatments, such as medicines for epilepsy and depression, are inadequate and associated with severe side effects.

Conventional opioid compounds, such as morphine and oxycodone, are very useful in treating acute pain, but they are much less effective against chronic neuropathic pain, and they are not officially recommended by national advisory bodies.

Also, conventional opioids that affect the mu-receptor have significant, possibly life-threatening side effects (respiratory depression, nausea, constipation and  itching). Patients treated with conventional opioids quickly become tolerant to their analgesic (pain-reducing) effect, necessitating increased doses with an increased risk of toxicity. Furthermore, the euphoric effects of classical opioids like morphine have resulted in an epidemic of opioid overuse, particularly in the USA, leading to thousands of deaths and costing health services billions of dollars which have led to multiple lawsuits against Big Pharma companies.

PharmNovo’s drug candidate PN6047 does not affect the mu-receptor. Instead, it selectively activates the delta receptor (DOR) in the endogenous opioid system and is expected to provide safe and effective relief of neuropathic pain. The candidate has the potential to be first-in-class.

The estimated direct and indirect healthcare costs for neuropathic pain disorders in the European Member States vary between 2 and 3% of GDP . In 2016, this estimate would result in a cost of up to 440 billion Euros. Introducing an effective and safe treatment for neuropathic pain would save the member states high costs and improve the quality of life for their people.

The US Opioid Crisis

20,145
Synthetic opioids other than Methadone
15,446
Heroin
14,427
Natural and semisynthetic opioids
10,619
Cocaine
7,663
Methamphetamine
3,314
Methadone

Since 1999 the amount of prescription opioids sold to pharmacies, hospitals, and doctors’ offices in the USA quadrupled with no overall change in the amount of pain that Americans reported.

Deaths from prescription μ-opioids  e.g. oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine have also more than quadrupled since 1999.

Jan 2018; New York sued eight Pharma companies for fuelling the opioid crisis with conventional opioid medicines.

Latest news

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October 3, 2023

Phase I study completed for PN6047

In August 2022, PharmNovo initiated the First-In-Human, (FIH), clinical study for the company’s drug candidate PN6047, aimed at evaluating its safety and tolerability. By August 2023, the study was completed, involving 104 subjects across 13 cohorts, which included both Single Ascending Dose (SAD) and Multiple Ascending Dose (MAD) cohorts. Each cohort consisted of 8 subjects, with 6 receiving active treatment and 2 receiving placebo.

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October 3, 2023

PharmNovo presented at the BioStock Investor Meeting

PharmNovo participated at the BioStock Investor Meeting in Stockholm on September 20. Our CEO presented the development and phase I clinical study of our drug candidate PN6047, which is in its final phase.

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September 28, 2023

No abuse potential shown in preclinical studies

We are delighted to share promising preclinical results for our innovative drug candidate PN6047, further confirming its safety profile. PN6047 is designed to provide relief from neuropathic pain, and these findings reinforce our commitment to safe and effective pain management as we prepare for Phase II trials in 2024.

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September 10, 2023

Latest progress from PharmNovo at EFIC

PharmNovo will participate in the 13th Congress of the European Pain Federation, EFIC, in Budapest from 20-22 September. The EFIC Congress is the largest international congress on pain.

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