4E Therapeutics, Inc. is a neuroscience company structured around developing a non-opioid therapeutics for neuropathic pain in a concerted effort to stem the tide of the opiod addition crisis. Affecting some 10% of the population in the US, neuropathic pain is a leading cause of disability with few options that actually work and that do not have debiliating side effects. The firm's approach is centered on the idea of targeting the activity of a protein called eIF4E for neuropathic pain treatment. For over a decade, the lab of one of the firm's founders has studied elF4E and demonstrated the key role the protein plays in regulating the activity of pain-sensing neurons in the peripheral nervous system called nociceptors: neurons play a crucial role in neuropathic pain. The effort is centered on optimizing therapeutic targeting of eIF4E for the treatment of neuropathic pain with the goal of advancing a lead molecule to Investigational New Drug (IND) status in timely manner.
