AnaBios Awarded SBIR Grant by NIH/NCATS for Developing Novel Pain Therapeutics

SAN DIEGO, December 15, 2020 (Newswire.com) -  The National Institute of Health (NIH) and its subdivision, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), has awarded AnaBios a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to further advance its unique human dorsal root ganglia (DRG) platform for pre-clinical drug discovery. In this NIH/NCATS-sponsored program, AnaBios will develop a battery of assays for a translational drug screening platform that will generate human-relevant data to assess the potential of a drug candidate's activity in specific pain states.

"AnaBios appreciates the NIH's continued support of our efforts to develop tools to help identify promising new molecules for chronic pain treatment," said Dr. Andre Ghetti, Chief Executive Officer of AnaBios. "This project will advance the development of our novel screening platform and ultimately help bypass the cross-species translational hurdles which have impeded the progress of pain drug development for decades." 

AnaBios has developed breakthrough in vitro assays based on human neurons for the generation of clinically predictive data at the preclinical stage. This novel paradigm overcomes the serious limitations of the current pain drug discovery strategy.

Chronic pain is a debilitating condition that affects more than 20% of Americans, according to the Center for Disease Control. Many current pain medications on the market have serious risk of respiratory and gastrointestinal side effects, and can be highly addictive. In addition, high clinical attrition, which results in the lack of efficacy of pivotal Phase II clinical studies, continues to hinder the development of alternative novel analgesics.

The award cited in this press release is supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number 1 R43-DA052947-01. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

About AnaBios

Located in San Diego, California, AnaBios aims to establish the safety and efficacy of novel compounds through its advanced, human-focused translational technologies. AnaBios primarily focuses on areas of high, unmet medical need, including cardiac disease, pain and itch. In addition to working with Fortune 500 biotech companies, CROs and academia, AnaBios drives an internal drug discovery platform via in-licensed programs from partners in the pharmaceutical industry. For more information about AnaBios, visit http://www.anabios.com.   

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Contact: Chris Mathes, Chief Commercial Officer, AnaBios, [email protected]

Source: AnaBios