WATERTOWN, Mass.– Nocion Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel small molecule charged sodium channel blockers called “nocions”, that selectively affect actively firing nociceptors for the treatment of serious conditions involving cough, itch, and pain, today announced the presentation of progress in the development of taplucainium, a novel, charged sodium channel blocker, as a potential treatment for chronic cough at the 13th London International Cough Symposium. The presentation and poster will be given by Bernard Silverman, MD., Nocion’s Chief Medical Officer.
“We are excited with the strong progress that we have made developing taplucainium as a treatment for chronic cough with the ability to address this significant unmet medical need,” said Dr. Silverman. “We look forward to the start of our ASPIRE (Phase 2b) clinical trial of taplucainium in 240 chronic cough patients in the second half of 2024.”
Taplucainium (formerly NTX-1175) is a proprietary molecule in the novel class of charged sodium channel blockers that allows for specific silencing of activated/inflamed nociceptors while having minimal local off-target effects or systemic exposure. Unlike other investigative cough therapies, such as P2X3-antagonists, TRPA1-antagonists and TRPM8-agonists, which target a specific large pore channel, taplucainium works downstream by selectively targeting the sodium channels in activated nociceptors which are the target of these large pore channels. Taplucainium is formulated into a dry powder for inhalation and, once inhaled, gains access to the pulmonary nociceptors through any open large pore channel including P2X, TRPV, TRPA and TRPM channels whereupon it inhibits the sodium channels responsible for initiating the pathological cough response. The broader mechanism of taplucainium has shown significant antitussive effects in preclinical models of cough. Combined with good preliminary safety and efficacy data from earlier stage clinical work, this forms the basis for its investigation not just in chronic cough but in other cough indications as well.
