The world needs a new approach to treating serious pain
Tris Pharma is working with urgency to develop a pipeline of differentiated compounds based on groundbreaking advances in the evolution of pain biology modulation. Our lead investigational compound, cebranopadol, is the world’s first dual nociceptin/orphanin FQ peptide (NOP) receptor and µ-opioid peptide (MOP) receptor (dual-NMR) agonist, and has the potential to offer gold-standard efficacy with minimized risk of detrimental side effects.
The problem with pain
Every year, millions of individuals suffer from moderate to severe pain due to surgeries, illnesses, trauma, burns and other injuries.
Moderate to severe pain can have a devastating impact on all aspects of a patient’s life, such as physical function, memory, cognition and attention, sleep and overall quality of life.1
Primarily targeting the MOP receptor, opioids are the only effective drugs for treating most moderate-to-severe pain patients. However, they can cause dangerous side effects, including addiction and respiratory depression.
Answering the pressing call for effective pain management with a strong safety profile
At Tris, we are pioneering a fundamentally different approach to pain biology modulation: the dual-NMR agonist.
Dual-NMR agonist compounds have the potential to deliver gold-standard pain relief with a strong safety profile because they mimic the body’s natural pain-modulation processes. By leveraging the body’s innate coactivation of NOP and MOP, dual-NMR agonists synergize the analgesic and safety characteristics of the NOP receptor with the analgesic advantages of the MOP receptor. Our investigational dual-NMR agonist, cebranopadol, has been well-characterized, studied in approximately 2,000 patients, and is currently undergoing pivotal Phase 3 trials in various pain types.
Research into the potential safety advantages of the dual-NMR mechanism is being supported by the NIH through a significant award
Because of cebranopadol’s novel approach to pain modulation, we have generated promising preclinical data for the treatment of addiction. Based on these findings, Tris has been awarded up to $16.6 million over five years from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to evaluate cebranopadol for the treatment of opioid and substance use disorder.
This research is supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number UG3DA059285. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
1 Phillips JK, Ford MA, Bonnie RJ. Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic: Balancing Societal and Individual Benefits and Risks of Prescription Opioid Use. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. July 2017.
2 Mura P, Serra E, Marinangeli F, et al. Prospective study on prevalence, intensity, type, and therapy of acute pain in a second-level urban emergency department. J Pain Res. 2017;10:2781-2788.
3 Garimella V, Cellini C. Clin Colon Rectal Surg. 2013;26(3):191-196.
4 Glare P, et al. Lancet. 2019;13:1537-1546.
5 Rikard SM, et al. Chronic Pain Among Adults – United States, 2019-2021. MMWR. April 2023: 72(15):379-385.