Startup Sea4Us is close to licensing a new painkiller discovered in marine organisms off the Algarve coast that could relieve chronic pain for hundreds of millions of people around the world.
After more than 10 years of research, this Portuguese advanced biotechnology company, based in Sagres, Vila do Bispo, makes no secret of its desire to sell its discovery to one of the “sharks” of the global pharmaceutical industry.
Chronic pain is a disease that affects one in five people worldwide, but the proportion is higher among the Portuguese population, Pedro Lima, researcher and scientific director of Sea4Us, told Lusa.
The company is developing the first non-opioid marine analgesic that, if all goes according to plan, will be effective in treating chronic pain without causing addiction or side effects because it does not act centrally in the brain, he said.
“What we need to develop is an alternative to opioids, morphine and the like, which in many cases actually relieve pain, but in others they don’t, but sometimes have terrible side effects,” explained the neuroscientist and marine biologist.
It is very likely that the new medicine of the future will be possible thanks to the special characteristics of marine organisms that have evolved and embedded themselves in the rocks of caves and cavities on the Algarve coast, near Sagres, in the Faro district.
Luz accompanied one of the semi-rigid boat departures from Sagres, during which the Sea4Us team, led by Pedro Lima, dived close to a rock on the southern coast of the Algarve, between the fishing port of that town and Ponta da da. Atalaya – for collecting sponges and other marine organisms from stones.
“It is in these organisms, like the ones we took, that we find chemistry that is beyond human ingenuity. Human ingenuity cannot synthesize the forms we find in these animals. This is our concept,” said the person in charge after the dive, which lasted about half an hour.
Sagres is the main collection site for marine samples, where Sea4Us has sample processing facilities on site, but pre-clinical development is carried out in the Physiology Laboratory of the University of Nova de Lisboa.
The company also works in networks with other organizations, such as the University of the Algarve and other educational institutions in Europe, the USA and Japan, as well as with companies developing a wide variety of substances.
“Our concept is really to take you [o produto] to the point – we hope to get there in a year and a half – where we can license one of these sharks. [multinacionais do setor farmacêutico]”, he decreed.
The company is now conducting tests that precede the first human clinical trials, and if all goes as expected, it could move on to licensing and bringing the product to market by drug companies, which could take about five years.
Sea4Us admits that it does not have the necessary money to conduct all the tests on guinea pigs and that it would like to sell its project in about a year and a half, at the very beginning of human experiments.
So far the company has already invested between 1.5 and 2 million euros in this project with the help of public funds, hoping to continue investing in others, some of which have already begun, which will allow it to fight diseases such as overactive bladder, neuropathy or epilepsy caused by chemotherapy.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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