Charles B. Berde, MD, PhD, Joins Scientific Advisory Board of Akelos Inc., Biotechnology Company Developing Opioid Alternatives

NEW YORK, April 29, 2019 (Newswire.com) - ​​​​​Akelos Inc., a biotechnology company currently developing and commercializing a novel, non-opioid anti-hyperalgesic drug to treat chronic and neuropathic pain, adds Dr. Charles Berde to its Scientific Advisory Board. 

Dr. Berde is the Sara Page Mayo Chair and Senior Associate in Pediatric Pain Medicine in the Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital and Professor of Anesthesia (Pediatrics) at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.

He completed an MD and Ph.D. (Biophysics) at Stanford University; his residency in pediatrics at Boston Children's Hospital; residency in anesthesiology at Massachusetts General Hospital; and fellowship in pediatric anesthesiology at Boston Children's Hospital.

Dr. Berde co-founded and, for 33 years, directed the Pain Treatment Service at Boston Children's Hospital, the first and most clinically active acute and chronic pain management program for children in the world. Dr. Berde’s translational research concerns local anesthetic mechanisms and the development of novel prolonged duration local anesthetics that are now in clinical trials. His clinical research concerns clinical pharmacology of analgesics and local anesthetics in children, clinical outcomes of treatment of neuropathic pain and cancer pain in children, and EEG brain dynamics studies in children during general anesthesia. Dr. Berde is the author of over 150 original peer-reviewed articles and over 110 chapters and reviews. He was profiled as one of Time Magazine's "Heroes in Medicine" in 1997. He has received several awards and honors for his pioneering work in pediatric pain relief and anesthesiology, including the 2003 Scientific Achievement Award of the Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome Association, the 2015 International Association for the Study of Pain Special Interest Group in Pediatric Pain Distinguished Career Award, the 2018 Society for Pediatric Anesthesia Myron Yaster Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2018 American Society for Regional Anesthesia John Bonica Lifetime Achievement award. 

Akelos inc., is in a research collaboration with Weill Cornell Medicine to develop and commercialize a novel, non-opioid anti-hyperalgesic drug to treat chronic and neuropathic pain. The pre-clinical laboratory research that gave rise to Akelos Inc.'s underlying technology was enabled through prior support provided by Weill Cornell Medicine’s Daedalus Fund for Innovation, an “accelerator” type program that provides gap funding for select research projects at Weill Cornell Medicine with manifest commercial potential. Weill Cornell Medicine’s Office of BioPharma Alliances and Research Collaborations, which leads the Daedalus Fund for Innovation, catalyzed and negotiated the agreement with Akelos.

Dr. Peter Goldstein, a professor of anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine and a principal investigator in the C.V. Starr Laboratory for Molecular Neuropharmacology in the institution’s Department of Anesthesiology, is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Akelos.

“An estimated 20 million people in the United States live[AS1]  with chronic neuropathic pain, for which opioid medication is a common treatment,” said Dr. Steven Fox, chairman of Akelos Inc. “However, the unprecedented opioid epidemic has made it all the more important to develop new medications that relieve pain without the addictive qualities that can lead to dependency. Our collaboration with Weill Cornell Medicine researchers, led by Dr. Goldstein, is a critical step to realizing that goal." Weill Cornell Medicine's Office of BioPharma Alliances and Research Collaborations’ mission is to proactively generate, structure and market translational research alliances with industry in order to advance promising research projects that have commercial potential. For more information, contact Larry Schlossman at [email protected] or at 212-746-6909.

For more information, please contact:

Akelos Inc.

Dr.  Steven Fox, CEO
212-953-1544
[email protected]

About Akelos Inc.

Akelos Inc. is a biopharmaceutical clinical company focused on the translation of innovative science into treatment. The company currently is developing novel non-narcotic drugs for the treatment of neuropathic pain. The goal of Akelos is to address some of today’s most pressing areas of unmet needs.

Forward-Looking Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s expectations and are subject to certain factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, outcomes of events, timing and performance to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These statements include, among others, those related to: the results of research and development activities, uncertainties relating to preclinical and clinical testing, the cost, timing and outcome of the regulatory development and approval process, our  budgets, expenditures and financing plans, our need for substantial additional funds, patent and intellectual property matters, our dependence on third parties, including contract research and contract clinical trial organizations, and market opportunity and competition.

The information contained in this press release is believed to be current as of the date of original issue.  Akelos, Inc. expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in our expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statements are based.

Source: Akelos Inc.