Novaremed, founded by Dr. Eli Kaplan and his colleagues, develops a new molecule, NRD135S, aiming to treat chronic pain. More than 25 million Americans experience acute pain as a result of injury or surgery each year, while chronic pain afflicts more than 50 million people. The company's main activity is based on proprietary molecules that were identified, designed and then synthesized  based on a natural substance. Recently, the company identified and developed its activity using well-established animal models of acute pain (hot-plate, carrageenan , formalin and tail-flick) and demonstrated superior results in comparison to

several gold-standard anti pain drugs (NSAID like diclofenac, anti convulsant like carbamazepine and gabapentin, and even opiod derivatives, such as tramadol).

The new drug entity has been proven to provide oral bioavailability, and   is safe and well tolerated in animal models. It is expected that in 1 year time the company will be able to enter first-in-man trials.

NRD135S is being developed to be used in treatment or prophylaxis of  pain, providing an alternative to NSAIDs by reducing inflammation and neuropathic pain. Desirably, NRD135S will be able to treat moderate to severe pain, replacing the opioid analgesics without CNS untoward activity or side effects.

MARKET
ted States, somewhere between 15-30% percent of the population suffers from some form of chronic pain. Key chronic pain populations include arthritic pain, chronic low back pain, cancer pain, painful diabetic neuropathy, postherpetic neuralgia, HIV-related neuropathic pain, and fibromyalgia. Steady increases in the percentages of these populations that are diagnosed and drug-treated will drive overall growth of the market for chronic pain therapies.

The holy grail of pain-killer drugs derived from opium is to find ones that are abuse-resistant and don't cause physical dependence.

PROJECT STATUS
The company continues to develop its leading drug candidate as an ATI Incubator Company.

The in vivo experiments performed so far:

·         Approx. 20 studies ( in mice and rats) for efficacy, which included hot plate, formalin test, Carrageenan test, Chung, Open Field, Tail-flick etc.

·         Two toxicology studies, one sub-chronic in the mouse and one as single escalating dose in the rat (MTD)

·         PK study in the rat

·         Metabolism and mechanism of action

Several patent applications were submitted for various uses of the new chemical entity (allergies, viral diseases, cancer and pain).