Weill Cornell Medicine has received more than $635,000 in first-year funding for a two-year grant worth up to $1.24 million from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health, to study a new approach for delivering an experimental non-opioid pain medication, called BP4L-18:1:1, to relieve neuropathic pain. The grant could be extended beyond its second year if the research achieves prescribed milestones.
People with neuropathic pain, which occurs when the nervous system itself is damaged, have few effective options to treat their pain, and current treatments are often minimally effective and are frequently associated with a poor side effect profile. The current grant aims to improve the efficacy of BP4L-18:1:1 by providing tissue-specific drug targeting. The new delivery system, if scientifically validated, could allow us to improve the drug’s efficacy and reduce the drug dose,” said principal investigator Dr. Peter A. Goldstein, a professor of anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine and an anesthesiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, who for the past decade has been working with members of his laboratory, notably Dr. Gareth R. Tibbs, as well as through industry start-up Akelos, Inc. to develop the experimental therapy.
