The U.S. Dept. of Defense is supporting SiteOne Therapeutics in the effort to develop the company's proprietary, highly selective small molecule Naᵥ1.7 inhibitors for the treatment of acute and chronic pain.
"The validation and confidence of officials of the U.S. Department of Defense is exceptionally welcome. There is a critical need for non-opioid therapeutics that treat acute and chronic pain effectively, allowing for less reliance on opioids, and reducing the side effects and addiction potential associated with them” SiteOne Co-Founder and Vice President of Research, John Mulcahy, said, “We are committed to advancing our research and development programs focused on Naᵥ1.7 and are inspired by the confidence of the many people and entities who support our approach."
In January 2017, Stan Abel, Chief Executive Officer and President of SiteOne Therapeutics announced the closing of a research and development agreement with Amgen, a collaboration focused on combining SiteOne's experienced drug discovery team and portfolio of novel Naᵥ1.7 inhibitors with Amgen's neuroscience capabilities.
SiteOne was founded with technology licensed from Stanford University. The company has advanced this science with support from its founding investors as well as from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) which contributed more than $3 million in Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant funding.
The company's therapeutic candidates are highly selective sodium ion channel 1.7 (Naᵥ1.7) inhibitors based on naturally occurring small molecules. Given the critical role Naᵥ1.7 plays in the generation and conduction of pain signals, combined with the urgent need for new, non-opioid pain therapies, SiteOne is focused on advancing its lead products for the treatment of moderate to severe pain.