A key trigger that leads a smoker to light up a cigarette – or a cocaine abuser to fiend for a hit – is stress. Embera NeuroTherapeutics is a Boston-based startup developing a treatment for cocaine abuse and smoking cessation – helping temper the addiction by reducing the stress that causes the initial urge.
It just closed out its second tranche of a Series A round, raising $2 million. The dollars will help Embera complete its smoking cessation Phase 1 trial, among smokers who are otherwise healthy. It expects to roll out data by the end of 2015.
The company, founded in 2007, licenses its core technology from Louisiana State University. Embera’s raised about $8 million to date from private investors, and $4 million in NIH grants. A notable investor in this round is France-based HRA Pharma, a strategic investor that’s the only commercial manufacturer of metyrapone – one of the two components found in Embera’s therapy. Other investors include angel groups, high net-worth individuals and the company’s existing investors.
An addict’s neurochemistry is out of whack, so when certain stimuli – a shot of tequila, perhaps – occurs, the addict’s brain expects a reward. When they don’t receive it, the brain’s flooded with cortisol, and GABA is downregulated – so the stress response gets activated, CEO Bob Linke said.
The company’s lead candidate, EMB-001, is a patented combination of two FDA-approved drugs – the aforementioned metyrapone, a cortisol synthesis inhibitor, and oxazepam, a benzodiazepine drug. The rationale to combine these two drugs is that addicts rely upon their stimulant – be it cocaine or nicotine – when they’re under stress. So, theoretically, a medication that helps reduce stress could help temper the addiction itself.
There are some 2 million cocaine users in the U.S.; about half are addicted. As yet, there’s no medication that can help cocaine users – so Linke says there’s an ample market for this brand of therapy – perhaps $500 million to $750 million worldwide. And the smoking cessation market is its own beast – it’s a projected $2 billion market worldwide, with $1 billion of that in the U.S.
Preclinical work has Linke believing that his medication could outpace the current market leader, Chantix. We shall see.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
[Image courtesy of Flickr user SuperFantastic]
