Source: (
click here to go to the source)
A new medication under development by Lohocla Research Corporation targets anxiety and chronic pain, two sensations that are just the opposite of what Lohocla's people must have been feeling when some good news arrived recently.
Dr. Boris Tabakoff in the lab
The welcome news: Confirmation that the National Institute of Health had approved a Phase II continuation grant of approximately $1 million. The grant enabled Lohocla to move ahead on FDA-required investigational new drug safety and toxicity studies for Lohocla 201, a promising new medication that attacks anxiety and chronic pain syndromes.
The company, based at the Bioscience Park Center at Fitzsimons, has developed a novel compound that targets the receptors for both maladies. Pending favorable results of the safety studies, Lohocla 201 seems destined to spark interest among venture capitalists or other investors or partners within the pharma industry to facilitate commercialization of the medication.
Lohocla's founder and sole stockholder is Boris Tabakoff, Ph.D., who is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. The NIH grant continuation is significant, he says, because, "One of the most difficult transitions you have in developing a new medication comes between the initial basic research stage that shows the efficacy of the drug and moving to the stage where you examine possible toxicity and safety before moving into studies with humans."
Investors may become interested at the first stage, but everybody is always worried about safety. "Getting to that second stage takes a large chunk of money as we just received from the NIH."
Lohocla 201 received U.S. patent protection this past spring and its European patent was issued in 2005. Lohocla moved into the Colorado Bioscience Park Aurora in 2004 and subsequently expanded into larger laboratory space in early 2006.
Grant News
The National Institute of Health (NIH) awarded Lohocla Research Corporation a $1 million grant to be used to research the proteomic markers of alcohol abuse. Lohocla will use this grant to further its research on platelet proteins using novel methods of protein separation, procession and mass-spectral analysis. Lohocla has separated and identified over 600 proteins using these methods and has found several platelet proteins that well reflect the quantities and frequency of ethanol consumed by individuals who can be considered hazardous or harmful drinkers.
The NIH has approved a Phase II continuation grant for approximately $1 million. The grant will enable Lohocla to move ahead on FDA-required investigational new drug safety and toxicity for Kindolor®, a promising new medication for treatment of chronic pain syndromes, anxiety, and brain damage.
