Painceptor Pharma (Ottawa, ON)
CMDF Investment: $4,526,000 
Private Company
Focus:Central Nervous System Disorders  Alzheimer's Disease  
Company Website

PainCeptor Pharma Corporation is a Canadian-based; private biopharmaceutical company focused on drug development for the treatment of acute and chronic pain. The Company has lead compounds active at several sites in the peripheral nervous system and expects to begin clinical trials for these programs in late 2005. The Company's pioneering approaches to pain management are fortified by a strong and extensive intellectual property portfolio with 33 issued patents and 43 active filings. Effective pain therapy is one of the most pressing and serious unmet medical needs. Last year the market for pain management exceeded CAD 30 billion in sales worldwide and is expected to increase steadily over the next decade with the aging of the population. PainCeptor will focus its drug development efforts primarily on chronic malignant / non-malignant pain; including peripheral neuropathic pain indications. The Company was recently established in May 2003 by the merger of Antalium Inc. and Neuroceptor Inc.; two companies with complementary technologies in-licensed from the Montreal Neurological Institute (McGill University) and Queen's University; respectively. In subsequent transactions; supplemental Antalium intellectual property was acquired from NeuroSearch A/S; a Danish pharmaceutical company. Neuroceptor; on the other hand; further strengthened its intellectual property portfolio through a licensing agreement with Allelix Pharmaceuticals (now NPS-Allelix). PainCeptor compounds are active in vivo. These compounds modulate ion channels and neurotrophin receptors specifically expressed in the peripheral nervous system (PNS); which constitutes the first line of defense against pain.