PAIN
In the USA, 50 million adults experience chronic pain (NIH) and worldwide more than 1 billion live with some type of chronic pain. Prolonged use of common over-the-counter medicines for the treatment of pain may cause potential hepatotoxicity (liver toxicity with high doses of acetaminophen/paracetamol) and nephrotoxicity (kidney toxicity with high dose or prolonged use of NSAIDs [non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs]).
Acetaminophen/paracetamol liver toxicity is the most common cause of acute fulminant hepatic failure in the USA and other parts of the Western Europe. Moreover, an opioid crisis in the USA took the lives of more than 72,000 patients in 2017, more than HIV/AIDS deaths at the peak of its epidemic in 1995 or all Americans killed in the Vietnam War.
Given these current shortcomings in pain management, there is a large need and significant market for new selective non-narcotic compounds with minimal toxicity.
The global acetaminophen/paracetamol market is expected to reach $999.4M in 2020(1).
The global market for pain management pharmaceuticals and devices is projected to grow to ~$44.3B by 2020(2).
(1)Zion Research Analysis, 2015;
(2)Research and Markets ‘The global market for pain management drugs and devices 2015’