Spinifex focuses on pain because it is an area of high unmet medical need. Demand for pain drugs continues to increase, fuelling the growth of a market that is expected to be worth over US$35 billion by 2017⁽¹⁾. Chronic pain,  where Spinifex is active, can have a debilitating effect on patients and is currently poorly treated. Spinifex’s lead programs are in neuropathic pain, a group of chronic painful conditions where the underlying cause is due to nerve dysfunction triggered by a variety of factors including viruses, diabetes, trauma and chemotherapy. A significant opportunity exists for new candidates that can deliver improved efficacy, side effect profiles, time to onset and simplified dosing in neuropathic pain. EMA401, Spinifex’s lead clinical candidate, is being developed to address this unmet need and has successfully completed Phase 2 clinical trials in post herpetic neuralgia, a neuropathic pain which follows herpes zoster (shingles) in some patients.

In addition, EMA401 is being advanced as a potential treatment in other chronic pain indications and Spinifex has an active drug discovery program around its AT₂ Receptor Antagonist Technology.

⁽¹⁾ GBI Research. Pain Management Therapeutics Market to 2017 – Price Competition to Intensify Following Patent Expiries of Lyrica and Cymbalta (November 2011).