Rutgers Advances Non-Opioid Solutions for Chronic Pain

An exclusive deal with Tonix Pharmaceuticals moves innovative pain treatment toward market

Rutgers has granted Tonix Pharmaceutical exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize a novel class of compounds created by university researchers with the potential to transform pain management and address the opioid epidemic.

The compound can be used to treat chronic pain caused by such conditions as diabetes, chronic back pain and chemotherapy treatments.

The agreement makes it possible for the company to begin manufacturing the compound and conduct preclinical testing to estimate the correct dosage.

The drug was developed through a collaboration between Rutgers researchers and William Welsh, Norman H. Edelman Professor in Bioinformatics in the Department of Pharmacology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and Youyi Peng, who until recently was Senior Bioinformatics Specialist at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey.

Peng and Welsh focused on the sigma-1 receptor (S1R) which plays an important role in various pathological disorders, including pain and neurodegenerative disorders. Thanks in part to a grant from the Office for Research's TechAdvance™ fund, which provides financial support and business expertise to Rutgers researchers to advance promising technologies toward commercialization, they were able to develop a compound that made it possible to reduce opioid dosage as well as opioid adverse side effects.

"We used computer-aided and AI-driven approaches to design this new class of selective Sigma-1 receptor antagonists," said Peng, who now serves as a consultant to Tonix.

"Our foundational research represents an important step toward developing non-opioid solutions for chronic pain. We are pleased to see this innovation progress toward potential clinical applications, which could address a critical unmet need for safer, effective pain management options," said Welsh, who is also associate director, division of cheminformatics, biomedical informatics shared resource at Rutgers Cancer Institute.

The agreement was executed by the Rutgers Office for Research Technology Transfer unit, underscoring the university's commitment to moving groundbreaking innovations from lab to market, and Tonix's dedication to developing non-addictive, non-opioid analgesics.

"Rutgers researchers focus on finding answers to the issues that impact us all, and this discovery by Youyi Peng and William Welsh is emblematic of that fact," said Michael E. Zwick, senior vice president for research. "Their invention has the potential to improve pain treatment while helping to decrease the rate of opioid dependency, and we look forward to seeing its positive impact on the world."

"With our extensive experience studying and developing an FDA approved non-opioid-analgesic, we are well-positioned to oversee this new development program,'' said Seth Lederman, president and chief executive officer of Tonix Pharmaceuticals. "We believe TNX-4900 has the potential to be best-in-class."

"The Technology Transfer and New Ventures units of the Office for Research are proud to have supported Youyi and William, from the TechAdvance® grant to establish feasibility and obtain proof-of-concept to the negotiation of the exclusive license between the university and Tonix Pharmaceuticals," said Deborah Perez Fernandez, executive director of Technology Transfer. "We thank them for collaborating with us to move this innovation closer to where it can make a positive impact on the world."