STOCKHOLM, SE / ACCESS Newswire / August 5, 2025 / AlzeCure Pharma AB (publ) (FN STO:ALZCUR), a pharmaceutical company that develops candidate drugs for diseases affecting the nervous system, focusing on Alzheimer's disease and pain, today announced that an abstract about the preclinical project TrkA-NAM ACD137 against osteoarthritis and other severe pain conditions has been accepted for presentation at the international pain conference NeuPSIG 2025, to be held in Berlin, Germany, September 4-6.
The abstract, titled Analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of ACD137, a potent and selective negative allosteric modulator of TrkA , will be presented at NeuPSIG 2025 by Märta Segerdal, Head of Development and Chief Medical Officer at AlzeCure Pharma. Co-authors are Pontus Forsell, Maria Backlund, Veronica Lidell, Azita Rasti, Cristina Parrado-Fernandez, Johan Sandin and Gunnar Nordvall.
The results show that the lead drug candidate in the project, ACD137, has potent analgesic effects in several different preclinical pain models. The analgesic effect of ACD137 in the study was as potent as the effect of the anti-NGF antibody Tanezumab, which has demonstrated significant and robust pain relief in several clinical trials. ACD137 achieves its effect by blocking NGF-mediated signaling via TrkA receptors, a biological mechanism with strong genetic, preclinical and clinical validation for its role in pain.
These positive preclinical data in models of osteoarthritis, neuropathic pain and nociceptive pain further strengthen previous positive analgesic results obtained with ACD137 and further underline its broad applicability in various severe pain conditions, including osteoarthritis.
"These data demonstrate that our drug candidate ACD137 is a highly potent and selective TrkA-NAM that exhibits significant analgesic effects in relevant preclinical animal models. Furthermore, this small molecule TrkA-NAM has the potential to avoid some of the side effects observed with anti-NGF antibodies due to a more selective mechanism of action, while maintaining analgesic efficacy," said Pontus Forsell, project leader and Head of Discovery and Research at AlzeCure Pharma.
"The project is based on a mechanism with strong validation, both preclinically and clinically. The results we have for TrkA-NAM in pain are promising, and the fact that we also have anti-inflammatory effects with our substance opens up for broader application. The fact that this is also a mechanism that is not linked to the side effects and addiction problems observed with opioids and antibodies is of course also important for a potential future approval," said Martin Jönsson, CEO of AlzeCure Pharma AB.
The abstract and the poster will be available on AlzeCure's website after the presentation (https://www.alzecurepharma.se/en/presentations-and-interviews/).
For more information, please contact
Martin Jönsson, CEO
Tel: +46 707 86 94 43
martin.jonsson@alzecurepharma.com
About AlzeCure Pharma AB (publ)
AlzeCure ® is a Swedish pharmaceutical company that develops new innovative drug therapies for the treatment of severe diseases and conditions that affect the central nervous system, such as Alzheimer's disease and pain - indications for which currently available treatment is very limited. The company is listed on Nasdaq First North Premier Growth Market and is developing several parallel drug candidates based on three research platforms: NeuroRestore ® , Alzstatin ® and Painless.
NeuroRestore consists of two symptomatic drug candidates where the unique mechanism of action allows for multiple indications, including Alzheimer's disease, as well as cognitive disorders associated with traumatic brain injury, sleep apnea and Parkinson's disease and is being prepared for phase 2. The Alzstatin platform focuses on developing disease-modifying and preventive drug candidates for early treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Painless is the company's research platform in the field of pain and contains two projects: ACD440, which is a drug candidate in the clinical development phase for the treatment of neuropathic pain with positive phase 2 results, and TrkA-NAM, which targets severe pain in conditions such as osteoarthritis. AlzeCure aims to pursue its own projects through preclinical research and development through an early clinical phase, and is continually working on business development to find suitable outlicensing solutions with other pharmaceutical companies.
FNCA Sweden AB is the company's Certified Adviser. For more information, please visit www.alzecurepharma.se.
About TrkA-NAM
The TrkA-NAM project, which is in research phase, is focused on the treatment of pain. The target mechanism, NGF / TrkA signaling, is well-validated both preclinically and clinically and provides a promising alternative to new analgesics without the side effects and addiction problems observed with opioids. Substances developed in the project have recently been shown to also have anti-inflammatory properties.
For the TrkA-NAM drug project, we have leveraged our knowledge concerning the underlying biology for the NeuroRestore platform in order to develop new compounds that focus on providing pain relief in conditions associated with severe pain.
The goal of the project is to develop a small-molecule TrkA-negative allosteric modulator for the treatment of osteoarthritis pain and other severe pain disorders. The global osteoarthritis market is expected to reach USD 11.0 billion by 2025, from USD 7.3 billion in 2020. Growth in this market is driven by factors such as the increasing occurrence of osteoarthritis, the growing aging population, and an increase in the number of sports injuries. Over 400 million people worldwide suffer from painful and activity-limiting osteoarthritis of the hip or knee. Many patients experience insufficient pain relief or side effects with current treatment, which today usually consist of NSAIDs or opiates and there is a great need for more effective and better tolerated drugs in this field. Read more about TrkA-NAM on our homepage.
Image Attachments
Martin Jönsson CEO And Pontus Forsell Head Of D&R AlzeCure Pharma
Attachments
SOURCE: AlzeCure Pharma
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
