Isosceles Pharmaceuticals is a preclinical stage pharmaceutical company, currently developing intravenous formulations of synthetic Cannabidiol, one of the many active chemicals in cannabis, as a non-addictive alternative to opium-derived painkillers – like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and fentanyl – for the treatment of postoperative acute pain. The company is also in development of an intradermal microneedle formulation for a “microneedle patch” to be used in pain management.
Isosceles has assembled a team of pharmaceutical experts with decades of experience in successfully developing FDA-approved parenteral pain products from intravenous and surgical site injectables to transdermal patches and sublingual tablets. Our team has a singular focus: to create a rapid onset non-opioid/non-NSAID product with fast onset and long-acting analgesia.
Our Approach
Using novel parenteral delivery systems, Isosceles Pharmaceuticals is developing a platform of proprietary options to treat acute pain. Parenteral delivery reduces hepatic exposure by avoiding first-pass metabolism and maximizes bioavailability by direct systemic delivery.
Pain Management Market
The Global Pain Management Drugs Market is estimated to $77.1 Billion by 2023. It is anticipated to register a CAGR of 4% during the forecast period. The non-opioid pain market for drugs is expected to reach 22.6 Billion dollars by 2022 and grow at rate of 17.9% per year over the next 3 years.
In 2017, the global chronic pain therapeutic market generated $69.3B in revenue with growth predicted at a CAGR of 6.4% from 2019-2024, putting the market value at $105.9B by 2024. This market’s “growth is primarily driven by the rising prevalence of chronic conditions, surging geriatric population, and increasing government support toward chronic pain management.” In addition to 1 out of every 5 US residents being over the age of 65 by 2030, the number of in patient and outpatient surgeries are expected to drastically increase from 200 million in 2019.
- The nation’s COVID pandemic made the nation’s drug overdose epidemic worse. Every state has reported a spike or increase in overdose deaths or other problems during the COVID pandemic.
- In 2019, an estimated 10.1 million people aged 12 or older misused opioids in the past year. Specifically, 9.7 million people misused prescription pain relievers and 745,000 people used heroin.
- 137 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose.
- 80 percent of people who use heroin first misused prescription opioids.
- In the United States of America (USA) the number of people dying from opioid overdose increased by 120% between 2010 and 2018.
- The U.S. economic cost of opioid use disorder ($471 billion) and fatal opioid overdose ($550 billion) during 2017 totaled $1,021 billion.
The nation’s COVID pandemic made the nation’s drug overdose epidemic worse. Every state has reported a spike or increase in overdose deaths or other problems during the COVID pandemic.
In 2019, an estimated 10.1 million people aged 12 or older misused opioids in the past year. Specifically, 9.7 million people misused prescription pain relievers and 745,000 people used heroin.
137 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose.
80 percent of people who use heroin first misused prescription opioids.
In the United States of America (USA) the number of people dying from opioid overdose increased by 120% between 2010 and 2018.
The U.S. economic cost of opioid use disorder ($471 billion) and fatal opioid overdose ($550 billion) during 2017 totaled $1,021 billion.
Deaths
137 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose, approximately 1 American dead every 10 minutes.
Overall, drug overdose deaths rose from 2018 to 2019 with 70,630 drug overdose deaths reported in 2019.
This has increased dramatically as opioid deaths reached 93,331 in 2020. In 2021, 106,699 drug overdose deaths occurred, resulting in an age-adjusted rate of 32.4 per 100,000 standard population in the United States. Adults aged 65 and over had the largest percentage increase in rates from 2020 through 2021.
Drug Abuse
In 2019, an estimated 10.1 million people aged 12 or older misused opioids in the past year.
1.6 million Americans misused prescription pain relievers for the first-time last year.
Taxpayer Cost
The U.S. economic cost of opioid use disorder ($471 billion) and fatal opioid overdose ($550 billion) during 2017 totaled $1,021 billion. This has increased dramatically as opioid deaths reached 93,331 last year.
Cannabidiol as an Analgesic
Since cannabidiol has a different MOA than that of currently approved analgesics, it may be a valuable adjunct to multimodal analgesia or enhanced recovery after surgery thereby contributing to the goal of reducing reliance on opioids. Unlike other cannabinoids, it is neither a CB1 or CB2 agonist, but instead reduces neuronal hyperexcitability and neurogenic inflammation through modulation of intracellular calcium via GPR55 and TRPV1 channels and modulation of adenosine-mediated signaling. GPR55 is a G protein-coupled cannabinoid receptor distinct from CB1 and CB2 and highly expressed in large dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons (Lauckner 2008). Transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1), a member of the vanilloid subfamily of TRP receptors, is known to be involved in noxious pain and temperature sensing (Hazan 2015) and is heavily represented in DRG neurons (Berta 2017) and in dorsal horn Rexed laminae I and II where interneurons involved in “cross-talk” reside (Yang 2014). Increased adenosine signaling has been shown to play a role in anti-nociception, particularly with acute pain (Adebiyi 2019, Sawynok 2016).
