Positive news for shingles sufferers

A new treatment from a University of Queensland start-up company, Spinifex Pharmaceuticals, could bring hope to shingles sufferers experiencing nerve pain.

The recent clinical trial of the company’s lead product, EMA401, showed promising results in treating the pain, medically known as postherpetic neuralgia (PHN).

Elderly people reportedly have twice the risk of contracting shingles, so the global ageing population trend has prompted predictions that the market for neuropathic pain treatments will exceed US$6 billion in the next five years.

The results were presented last month at the 14th World Congress of Pain® in Milan, a major international meeting organised by the International Association for the Study of Pain.

David Henderson, managing director of UQ’s main research commercialisation company, UniQuest, said the clinical trial results marked a major milestone for Spinifex Pharmaceuticals, which UniQuest formed in 2005.

“UQ’s Professor Maree Smith and her colleagues have developed new possibilities to help doctors relieve patients of this extremely debilitating nerve pain,” he said.

“As many as one in four people contract shingles in their lifetime and about 20% of them will experience PHN, but there’s no single treatment available that works for all of them without dose-limiting side-effects.”

According to Mr Henderson, with the development of EMA401 as a potential “first-in-class” oral treatment for neuropathic pain and related symptoms, “Spinifex is on track to have a significant impact on this healthcare sector”.

Spinifex Pharmaceuticals chief executive, Dr Tom McCarthy, said it was “tremendously gratifying” for the Spinifex team to have taken a scientific discovery through to proof of clinical concept in what is a notoriously difficult field and one where new treatments are clearly needed.

“We look forward to advancing EMA401 further in PHN, other neuropathic pain indications, and eventually as a broad treatment for chronic pain in general,” Dr McCarthy said.

Spinifex’s clinical program for EMA401 is recruiting for a Phase 2 study in the treatment of neuropathic pain in cancer chemotherapy patients. More information about Spinifex Pharmaceuticals’ drug development programs can be found at www.spinifexpharma.com.au