Addiction Therapeutix
Addiction Therapeutix is developing proprietary in-licensed medications for the treatment of various addictions and pain. The company is located in the Technology Innovation Center in the Milwaukee County Research Park in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, U.S.A.
For addiction, the company is currently focused on the development of compounds for Opioid Addiction. Addiction Therapeutix has an exclusive Patent Option Agreement with the Medical College of Wisconsin for the potential use of dextro-morphine to treat opioid addiction. Opioids are frequently prescribed by physicians because of their analgesic and pain-relieving properties. Medications that are within this group are referred to as prescription narcotics and include morphine, codeine, oxycodone, and related drugs. According to the 2009 U.S. Survey on Drug Use and Health, the number of Americans with pain reliever dependence or abuse has increased from 1.5 million to 1.9 million people.
Despite the high prevalence of these addictions, there are a disproportionately small number of individuals receiving pharmacotherapy for these substance abuse disorders. As a result, we believe there is a significant unmet clinical need for medications that may be effective and more readily accepted than what is currently available.
Through our relationship with researchers at UWM and our Patent Option Agreement with the WiSys Technology Foundation, we are developing GABAergic subtype selective agents for the treatment of Neuropathic Pain. According to The Neuropathy Association, it is estimated that in the United States alone there are approximately 20 million people who suffer from with this potentially debilitating illness. Although there are some FDA-approved prescription drugs in the market, they are not effective for all individuals and commonly have adverse side effects that make widespread utilization problematic.
We are in various early stages of animal studies with these compounds and have shown promising results. Additional information about our compounds and current state of development is contained in the Science and Technology portion of our website.
Video to the left:
The human brain is composed of approximately 100 billion hair-like nerve cells or neurons which receive, integrate, conduct and transmit electrochemical signals. Attenuation of specific chemicals in the brain and disruption of reward circuits is implicated in drug addiction. 3D animation above depicts neuronal network sending electrical impulses and communicating with neighboring neurons during processing of information.