Type Public Website www.trevena.com Founded 2007 | Traded as NASDAQ: TRVN Founder Robert Lefkowitz | |
 | ||
Industry Biotechnology / Pharmaceutical Key people Maxine Gowen (President and CEO), Michael Lark (CSO) Stock price TRVN (NASDAQ) US$ 3.42 -0.13 (-3.66%)4 Apr, 4:00 PM GMT-4 - Disclaimer Headquarters Pennsylvania, United States Profiles | ||
Maxine gowen of trevena inc wins 2010 stevie
Trevena Inc is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, USA, and is involved in the discovery and development of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR) biased ligands. Trevena was founded in 2007 with technology licensed from Duke University, which originated in the labs of company founders Robert Lefkowitz winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Howard Rockman. Trevena's approach to drug discovery is based on utilizing ligand bias, or functional selectivity, at GPCR targets to produce drugs with improved efficacy and reduced side effect profiles. Trevena was named one of the top 15 US startups of 2008 by Business Week.
Contents
Trevena’s expertise lies in engineering "biased ligands" that activate only the beneficial signaling pathways downstream of a GPCR to unlock new biology and avoid drug adverse effects. Trevena’s pipeline currently includes a clinical stage mu-opioid biased ligand for post-operative pain, and discovery-stage programs for chronic pain, migraine, and Parkinson’s disease.
History
In 2008, the company raised $25 Million in a Series A financing round led by Alta Partners, Polaris Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Healthcare Ventures, and Yasuda Economic Development Corporation.
In early 2009, Trevena entered into a collaborative agreement with Ligand Pharmaceuticals to identify biased ligands at numerous GPCRs from a large, diverse chemical library. Later that year, Trevena received a competitively awarded American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Grand Opportunities Grant, spanning two years and funding $7.65 million USD of research. The company has disclosed specific interests in the mu Opioid receptor and kappa Opioid receptor. The company raised an additional $35 million USD in a B round of venture financing in the summer of 2010. In 2011, Treveva received another NIH grant as part of the NIH Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network, potentially worth up to $10M USD, to support preclinical development of a delta opioid receptor biased ligand for major depressive disorder. Trevena has received funding from the Michael J. Fox Foundation to explore the potential for delta opioid receptor biased ligands to treat Parkinson's disease.
Trevana's initial public offering was on January 30th, 2014.
Oliceridine
Trevena's leading drug candidate is Oliceridine (TRV130), a G protein-biased ligand binding to the mu opioid receptor for the intravenous treatment of acute moderate-to-severe post-operative pain. Phase I and II clinical trials of TRV130 for postoperative pain are complete. Phase II trials showed effectiveness is analgesia and a wider therapeutic window than morphine. In February 2016, the FDA granted Breakthrough Therapy status to olicerdine. In January 2017, Trevana announced that enrollment for its phase III trials, APOLLO-1 and APOLLO-2 are complete.
TRV027
Trevena's developed TRV027 for acute heart failure, targets the angiotensin receptor utilizing beta-arrestin bias, an approach that has shown numerous beneficial cardiovascular and renal actions in preclinical species. Trevena completed Phase I clinical trials in 2010. Phase 2 clinical trials on TRV027 began in the spring of 2011. In May 2016, Trevana announced that the TRV027 phase II trial failed to meet its primary endpoints and they were no longer developing the drug.
TRV250
TRV250 is a pre-clinical drug candidate for migraine binding to the delta opioid receptor. This avoids the addiction potential of drugs that activate the mu opioid receptor. Other delta opioid-targeting drugs are known to cause seizures, but Trevaga hopes to avoid this with TRV250 by bypassing the β-arrestin pathway.
TRV734
TRV734 is an oral follow-up to the injected TRV130 mu-opioid biased ligand program. While it binds to the same receptors as opioid analgesics, TRV734 has very weak β-arrestin recruitment, unlike other available opioids, and produced fewer off-target effects. Phase I clinical trials were completed in 2014.