Ralfinamide shows promise in pain study

Italian drugmaker Newron Pharmaceuticals SpA says that it has seen positive results in a preclinical trial of ralfinamide as a treatment for spontaneous pain in a rodent model of neuropathy. The firm added that the agent demonstrated beneficial palliative analgesic effects.

The study, which was presented at the Congress of the European Federation of IASP Chapters in Istanbul, Turkey, showed that the drug suppressed spontaneous pain response behavior in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, the trial showed that the compound delayed the onset of such behavior when administered pre-operatively for seven days, compared with animals receiving no treatment.

The research team, which was led by Ze'ev Seltzer, Canada senior research chair in genetics of pain, at the University of Toronto, said that post-operative administration of the drug decreased the recorded pain scores, in accordance with the dose provided. Prof Seltzer's group also reported that the analgesic effect outlasted the 42 days treatment period, given that pain assessment scores remained significantly suppressed until the end of the observation period.