Spun out of Rockerfeller Univrsity, Ophidion, Inc. is an early-stage biotech company developing a new class of safe and effective drugs targeting some of the most important receptors in the central nervous system. The activity of these targets - nicotinic receptors - are implicated in smoking dependence, anxiety, and cognitive decline associated with neurological disorders. With wet lab space in the PBC incubator Pasadena but also having faciities in Ben Franklin Tech Ventures incubator in Bethlehem, PA, Ophidion leverages its academic ties, technical knowledge, and a forward thinking pharmacogenetics approach for early-stage drug development to develop innovative drug programs holding promise for improving the efficacy of CNS therapeutics, for the treatment of neurological disorders, anxiety and nicotine addiction. Ophidionâs approach addresses an intractable problem in the pharmaceutical industry, developing on the promise of cholinergic modulation as a therapeutic approach. Three of the four prescribed medications for Alzheimerâs disease are cholinergic agents, but their design leads to short (6-9 month) windows of clinical efficacy. Follow-on cholinergic agents have been attempted by targeting the receptors of the cholinergic system - neuronal nicotinic receptors - with the first set of nicotinic drugs just emerging in the marketplace. Ophidion is developing a platform technology that could be applied to multiple indications. The firm is interested in expanding the technology suitable for potential future gene therapies for monogenic diseases, such as Huntington's, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Diseases, which lack market attention despite increasing need and demand. Over the long haul, Ophidion plans to develop a pipeline of its nicotinic receptor-based anxietymedications, once the initial medication is validated through its clinical tri
