Description

Trepso Therapeutics Inc. is a start-up company developing a best-in-class peptide therapeutic for the treatment of intervertebral disc disease (IVDD) and other diseases associated with degenerating articular joints, such as osteoarthritis. Chronic back and knee pain remain under-served, highly prevalent conditions and leading causes of functional disability worldwide. Current therapeutic approaches are relatively non-specific, short-acting and target symptoms rather than the disease. When therapeutic avenues are exhausted, highly invasive surgical approaches with variable and somewhat limited success remain the only option. Thus, there is an urgent need for better approaches, ones that deal directly with the pathological state of the degeneration. Ideally, an effective therapeutic would reduce the inflammatory response, provide long-term pain relief, restore structural integrity and biomechanical function, and prevent or delay the need for surgical intervention. Trepso has a strong foundation of more than twenty years of scientific research led by Drs. John Antoniou, MD and Fackson Mwale, PhD, both professors at McGill University’s Department of Surgery. The lead product candidate is based on the bioactive portion of Link N, an endogenous peptide that acts as a growth factor and key regulator of normal cartilage and disc extracellular matrix turnover. Trepso's proprietary 8 amino acid peptide (sLinkN) differentiates itself from other treatment approaches as it not only reverses the structural deterioration due to the underlying disease, sLinkN blocks the inflammatory and pain-producing pathways directly. Extensive in vitro and in vivo animal model data support sLinkN's potential as a disease-modifying agent for addressing IVDD and osteoarthritis.