PainCeptor Pharma

Last updated
PainCeptor Pharma Corp.
Type Private
IndustryPharmaceutical
PredecessorAntalium and NeuroCeptor through merger
Founded2004;19 years ago (2004)
Headquarters
Montreal, Quebec [1]
,
Canada
Key people
Louis Lamontagne (President, 2004- ) [1] [2]
Number of employees
45 (2007) [1]

PainCeptor Pharma is a private Canadian company focused on the development of drugs that act outside the central nervous system on nociceptors to treat pain. [3] The company was established in 2004 through the merger of two academic spinout firms: Antalium from McGill University and NeuroCeptor from Queens University. [4] [5] At its inception, the company's primary operations were in Montreal and Kingston, [5] and it established a partnership with the Danish company NeuroSearch as part of its birth. [2]

Contents

About PainCeptor

The company's strategic focus was on peripheral rather than central-acting therapeutics is an attempt to avoid the known side effects of existing central-acting agents. [6] The primary molecular targets addressed by PainCeptor are members of the ASIC ion channel family and nerve growth factor (NGF) and NGF receptors. [6] In 2006, the company secured funding from the Canadian Industrial Research Assistance Program. [7] In 2007, the company raised C$24.4 million in venture capital funding in anticipation of starting first-in-man clinical trials that year; an initial round of funding had been secured in 2004 in the amount of C$23 million. [1] [2] As of 2007, the company conducted research out of the Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences, a facility of Canada's National Research Council located in Ottawa, Quebec. [1]

Although PainCeptor refers to itself as a biopharmaceutical company on its website, [3] its two primary publicly reported drug discovery projects aim to deliver small molecule therapeutics. [6] According to AdisInsight, a drug information platform published by Springer Nature, the small-molecule antagonists program discontinued in 2009; [8] while development of a separate drug, PPC-5650 (an ASIC channel antagonist) had been discontinued by 2016. [9]

Intellectual property

According to one source, in 2006 the company was granted patent protection on antagonists of each of these receptor types. [10] Inspection of the patent applications, though, shows that no patents were, in fact, granted. In regard to US2005282840A1 "Methods of modulating neurotrophin-mediated activity", the application status was revised to 'abandoned' in 2009; [11] a second patent application, US2007123514A1, bearing the same title has also been noted to be 'abandoned' as of 2010. [12] Likewise, in regard to US2008004282A1 "Compositions and methods for modulating gated ion channels", the application status was revised to 'abandoned' in 2010. [13] Still another patent application was 'abandoned' in 2011, US2009082368A1 "Methods of Modulating Neurotrophin-mediated Activity". [14] One patent was actually granted to the firm, US2007191418A1 "Compositions and methods for modulating gated ion channels", in 2007; this patent transferred ownership to Aros Pharma in 2010, who subsequently did not keep up payment of maintenance fees, resulting in the status changing to 'lapsed' in 2018. [15]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Hill, Bert (March 7, 2007). "PainCeptor raises $24.4 million in new capital". The Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa, Ontario. p. D3. Retrieved 10 Jan 2020– via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 3 Hill, Bert (March 23, 2004). "New biopharm firm looks to Ottawa for lab space". The Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa, Ontario: Ottawa Citizen Group. p. E3. Retrieved 10 Jan 2020– via Newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 "PainCeptor Pharma corporate home page". PainCeptor Pharma public corporate website. Archived from the original on 2007-09-02. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
  4. ↑ Staff (April 5, 2004). "The double-barreled approach" . BioCentury. Retrieved 10 Jan 2020. Newly formed PainCeptor Pharma Corp. brings together two small Canadian pain companies, each of which was focused on a different target. NeuroCeptor Inc., a spinout from Queens University, was studying the role of neurotrophins, specifically nerve growth factor (NGF), in pain, Antalium Inc., a spinout from McGill University....
  5. 1 2 Staff (March 25, 2004). "University spin-offs merge". FastTrack. The Gazette. Montreal, Quebec: CanWest. p. B6. Retrieved 10 Jan 2020– via Newspapers.com.
  6. 1 2 3 Dimond, Patricia F. (2007-10-01). "Revamping Drug Discovery Strategies". Drug Discovery. Genetic Engineering News. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
  7. ↑ "Organization: Industrial Research Assistance Program" . Research Money. February 14, 2006. Retrieved 10 Jan 2020.
  8. ↑ "Research programme: ASIC and NGF/p75 antagonists - PainCeptor" . AdisInsight Drugs. Springer Nature. October 25, 2011. Retrieved 10 Jan 2020.
  9. ↑ "PPC 5650" . AdisInsight Drugs. Springer Nature. March 24, 2016. Retrieved 10 Jan 2020.
  10. ↑ Chu, Wai Lang (October 3, 2006). "PainCeptor Pharma adds patients to pain portfolio". Outsourcing-Pharma.com. William Reed Business Media. Retrieved 10 Jan 2020.
  11. ↑ "US2005282840A1". Espacenet. Legal events. Retrieved 10 Jan 2020. See also the Patent Family tab for related publication identifiers.
  12. ↑ "US2008004282A1". Espacenet. Legal events. Retrieved 10 Jan 2020. See also the Patent family tab for related publication identifiers.
  13. ↑ "US2007123514A1". Espacenet. Legal events. Retrieved 10 Jan 2020. See also the Patent family tab for related publication identifiers.
  14. ↑ "US2009082368A1". Espacenet. Legal events. Retrieved 10 Jan 2020. See also the Patent family tab for related publication identifiers.
  15. ↑ "US2007191418A1". Espacenet. Legal events. Retrieved 10 Jan 2020. See also the Patent family tab for related publication identifiers.

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