Description:
Injectable formulations of anesthetics for any pathological pain
NJIT case number: 18-039
Inventors: Xiaoyang Xu, Yuanxiang Tao, He Zhu
Intellectual Property & Development status: Patent protection is pending.
NJIT is currently seeking commercial partners for the further development and commercialization of this opportunity.
Invention Summary:
Despite great efforts put into research and management for pain, during the past decades, pathological pain control remains a challenge in the patients. Inadequate treatment of pathological pain continues to be an important clinical problem, leading to not only adverse outcomes during the immediate pathological period but also an increased risk for persistent (or chronic) pathological pain.
NJIT and Rutgers investigators have developed an injectable sustained-release formulation of a local anesthetic for providing a long-lasting analgesic effect on pain, particularly, on pathological pain such as incisional pain and neuropathic pain, in a non-invasive or minim-invasive manner of administration. Such formulation prolongs analgesic effect, decreases toxicity, and allows larger loading dose, and at the same time is injectable directly at a patient’s body site of the interest without generating a surgical wound. The local anesthetic may be sustained-released up to about 14 days.
Advantages:
• The formulation is injectable and doesn’t need invasive surgery;
• The formulation materials are FDA approved medical materials and are biodegradable;
• The formulation provides a long-lasting analgesic effect on pain up to two weeks with a single injection.
Application: Provide a long-lasting analgesic effect on pain, particularly, on pathological incisional pain and neuropathic pain.
Inventor’s Bio: Dr. Xiaoyang Xu is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology. Before that, he was a joint NIH postdoctoral fellow in the laboratories of Professors Robert Langer at MIT and Omid Farokhzad at Harvard Medical School. Robert Langer is the founding father of tissue engineering and controlled drug release. Dr. Xu completed his Ph.D. in Material Chemistry at Northwestern University under the supervision of Prof. Chad Mirkin, a world-renowned leader in nanotechnology research and its application. Dr. Xu received his B.E. in Chemical Engineering from East China University of Science and Technology in China. Dr. Xu’s research focus is the development of novel biomaterials and nanotechnologies for a variety of medical applications including diagnosis, bioimaging, drug delivery, and regenerative medicine. He is also interested in developing synthetic biomaterials and processing techniques to fabricate hydrogels and scaffolds for use in drug delivery and tissue engineering. Dr. Xu has over 12 years of experience in the synthesis, characterization and testing of a range of biomaterials and nanoparticles for medical applications, leading to over 40 peer-reviewed research articles and 10 issued/pending patents. His publications has been cited over 4,700 times. Dr. Xu has received multiple awards including Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, AACR Scholar-in-Training Award, Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Chinese Students Study Abroad, and 1000 Plan Professorship for Young Talent.
Contact:
Simon Nynens, VP, Business Incubation
New Jersey Institute of Technology • (973) 642-7068 • simon.nynens@njit.edu