Neurofix Pharma enters the ‘club of the chosen ones’ by reaching the last phase of one of the most competitive EU calls.

The Spanish biotech Neurofix Pharma has taken another step in its goal of improving the quality of life of patients with spinal cord injury. The European Innovation Council has confirmed to the company its passage to the last phase of the EIC Accelerator initiative, the most popular European financing line for companies that want to launch disruptive innovation services or products on the market (affecting a certain industry in such a way that they make it change drastically). This is an important boost to the development of the drug NFX88 against neuropathic pain that affects spinal cord injuries that could speed up its development, double the company’s workforce and boost the capitalization and closing of the currently open round. It must be remembered that this molecule has just successfully completed phase IIA of its clinical trial and is ready to start the latest clinical milestone IIB/III.

Despite the fact that the EIC Accelerator is one of the most competitive calls launched by the European Union (in 2021 the success rate was 3.2%), the Neurofix Pharma team has managed to advance to the second phase, which It consists of an interview before the jury of the initiative to defend your project. This is the last step in the evaluation process before final approval, to which very few projects already go.

The CEO of Neurofix Pharma, Miguel Ángel Ávila Santiago, assures that, by obtaining the financing granted by the EIC Accelerator, the company could “obtain part of the resources to continue with the clinical development of its product before reaching the market”. This is phase IIB/III of the clinical trial in which the efficacy of its NFX88 molecule would be demonstrated against neuropathic pain in spinal cord injuries, a condition for which there is currently no specifically designed drug on the market. Likewise, Neurofix Pharma, a company based in the Science Park of the University of Salamanca, could double its workforce in the coming months.

Neuropathic pain after spinal cord injury is common and often becomes chronic. It must be considered that between 48% and 92% of spinal cord injuries experience pain, neuropathic pain being very frequent with a prevalence of up to 42%. According to the experts of the Spanish Pain Society, the management of neuropathic pain related to a spinal cord injury represents a therapeutic challenge for different reasons. The long-term prognosis often worsens over time. This causes the degree of disability to increase, reducing the quality of life of patients. Getting adequate control of your pain therefore becomes a very complex task. In practice, only a third of these patients reduce their pain by 50% with the treatments currently on the market, risking serious side effects such as ataxias, heart problems or depression.

The drug developed by Neurofix represents great hope for these patients since in the phase IIA clinical trial, which ended in May 2022, it has obtained very positive safety results and high efficacy trends, with the absence of serious side effects.

The good results of this phase have multiplied the company’s valuation to 22 million euros. Backed by strong investors, Neurofix Pharma has just started a new round of financing to face the next stages of the clinical trial. This is a capitalization worth 7 million euros in which important national and international investors have already shown their interest.