French biopharma start-up seeks partners to develop pain relief

Partnership, Licensing Opportunity

Trophos, a French biopharmaceutical company, is seeking investment and partnership to develop its novel therapeutic treatments for neurological disorders such as neuropathic pain associated with diabetes.

With the use of its innovative phenotypic screening platform, Trophos has developed proprietary products such as TRO19622, a compound which promote the survival of neurons under disease conditions, which could be used to combat diabetic and chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain.  The compound is currently entering its first proof of concept trial.

Trophos is looking for both investment and partnership and would be “flexible in terms of relationship and form of investment,” said Stephen Harris, Trophos business development officer, adding that the company is “currently closing a series C investment round; additional funding will be used to progress our clinical and preclinical pipeline of products.”

Regarding partnership and licensing, Trophos is looking for “Codevelopment or licensing partners interested in WW or territorial rights in return for suitable terms,” said Harris, “Clinical candidates and pipeline of preclinical programs of neuroprotective or cytoprotective compounds (patented) plus discovery platform are available for licensing to codevelopment or commercialisation partners.” 

The current investor group, comprising Société Générale Assets Management (SGAM), Turenne Capital Partners, Viveris Management, SOFIPACA and SOFIMAC, has, to date, provided €18 million in capital investment.  The company has also had “various sponsored research interactions with academic institutions to support preclinical relation for clinical candidates,” said Harris, “Also, significant partnerships established with key patient associations that sponsor R&D programs in SMA/ALS & HD,” he said.

The company is focusing its efforts on the orphan indicates ALS, SMA & Huntington's disease while seeking to establish clinical proof of concept in other indications, such as neuropathic pain, ischemia-reperfusion injury and hepatotoxicity.

Trophos, founded in 1999, is based in Marseille, France and currently has 32 employees.