Medasense Biometrics Ltd. received U.S. FDA marketing authorization for its PMD-200 patient monitor with nociception level index (NOL) technology that monitors patients’ physiological response to pain during surgery. NOL uses a multi-parametric sensor platform combined with artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to generate a ‘signature of pain’ for patients under anesthesia who are also receiving opioids and other analgesics.
The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) found in a new study that 77% of clinical programs focused on pain therapeutics five years ago are no longer active and that financings of companies working in the space are lackluster at best. Meanwhile, oncology companies, targeting an overall smaller market, have raised huge sums of venture capital money, $9.7 billion in 2021 vs. pain and addiction companies’ $228 million.
Researchers from Hefei Industrial Pharmaceutical Institute Co. Ltd. presented the discovery and preclinical evaluation of novel multifunctional inhibitors as potential anti-inflammatory and analgesic agents.
West China Hospital, Sichuan University has described heteroatom-substituted aromatic compounds reported to be useful for the treatment of pain and as general anesthetics.
Gruenenthal GmbH has described substituted pyrazole amides acting as sodium channel protein type 10 subunit α (SCN10A; Nav1.8) blockers reported to be useful for the treatment of pain.
Two studies published this week have reported new insights into the role of the nervous system in tumors outside of the brain. Researchers at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine have identified a role for pain-sensing neurons in helping oral carcinomas cope with nutrient starvation, and that this interaction could be blocked by the calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)-targeting migraine drug Nurtec ODT (rimegepant; Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Co. Ltd.).
Once pharma’s great hope to replace opioid painkillers, it looks like the end for nerve growth factor (NGF) inhibitors after Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. quietly axed fasinumab, the late-stage painkilling injection it was developing in partnership with Teva Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp.
Compounds acting as AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activators and prostaglandin G/H synthase 2 (PTGS2; COX2) inhibitors have been reported by Nanjing Shupeng Lifescience to be useful for the treatment of pain and inflammatory disorders, among others.
