Neuropathic pain is a type of chronic pain associated with a dysfunction within the nervous system. This pain typically occurs after a nerve is damaged due to injury such as trauma, disease, toxins or an autoimmune response. While pain is the body’s way of signaling physical harm that needs to be addressed (e.g. touching a hot stove), neuropathic pain is an exaggerated or unwarranted sense of pain that is not part of the normal pain response.
While a large portion of the population suffers from neuropathic pain, there are very few therapies approved to treat it. Common treatments include the use of anti-convulsants, anti-depressants, opioids and topical therapies. Each of these classes of therapy, particularly opioids, are associated with undesirable and potentially life threatening side effects. Further, while existing drugs successfully reduce pain in some patients, overall they provide only partial relief for only a portion of the population. This leaves a significant unmet need for patients, their families and physicians.
