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PainCeptor Pharma

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PainCeptor Pharma Corp.
Company typePrivate
IndustryPharmaceutical
PredecessorAntalium and NeuroCeptor through merger
Founded2004; 20 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]

About PainCeptor

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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

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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]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b "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. ^ a b Staff (March 25, 2004). "University spin-offs merge". FastTrack. The Gazette. Montreal, Quebec: CanWest. p. B6. Retrieved 10 Jan 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ a b c 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.

Further reading

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Directory listings

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