Pain Therapeutics - SMi's Seventh Annual Conference 12-13 June 2006, London, UK

摘要

Introduction and market overview This year's SMi Pain Therapeutics conference attracted approximately 50 delegates from academia, industry and contract research organizations. Boris Chizh (GlaxoSmithKline p1c, UK) opened the proceedings by discussing the current climate in the pain therapeutics arena. The development of drugs for pain is particularly complex because of the multiple etiologies and pathophysiologies of pain conditions, and treatment continues to rely heavily on old therapeutics such as opioids. Industry and academia are therefore under increasing pressure to develop new ideas for pain treatment. Expanding on these opening remarks, Klaus Dembowsky (Ingenium Pharmaceuticals AG, Germany) provided an overview of the current situation in the pain therapeutics market, while Chas Bountra (GlaxoSmithKline p1c, UK) discussed the role of translational pharmacology in pain. Referring to chronic pain as "a national public healthcare crisis" that costs the US economy approximately US dollar1.6 billion/year, Dr Dembowsky stressed the need for novel, effective drug treatments. Currently available therapeutics have only a 30 to 50% response rate, and this unmet clinical need represents a huge market potential. The only recently approved drug for chronic pain has been Elan Pharmaceuticals Inc's ziconotide (Prialt), an N-type calcium channel blocker.