Rutgers has granted Tonix Pharmaceutical exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize a novel class of compounds created by university researchers with the potential to transform pain management and address the opioid epidemic. The compound can be used to treat chronic pain caused by such conditions as diabetes, chronic back pain and chemotherapy treatments.
The agreement makes it possible for the company to begin manufacturing the compound and conduct preclinical testing to estimate the correct dosage.
The drug was developed through a collaboration between Rutgers researchers and William Welsh, Norman H. Edelman Professor in Bioinformatics in the Department of Pharmacology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and Youyi Peng, who until recently was Senior Bioinformatics Specialist at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey.
Peng and Welsh focused on the sigma-1 receptor (S1R) which plays an important role in various pathological disorders, including pain and neurodegenerative disorders. Thanks in part to a grant from the Office for Research’s TechAdvance™ fund, which provides financial support and business expertise to Rutgers researchers to advance promising technologies toward commercialization, they were able to develop a compound that made it possible to reduce opioid dosage as well as opioid adverse side effects. To read the full story.