10.3.23-Showcase-Osaka-Numb_Corp

[SPEAKING JAPANESE]

ANDREW RADIN: Good afternoon. I'm Andrew Radin, co-founder and CEO of Numb Corp., a biotechnology company developing therapeutics for pain management. 10 years ago, I earned my MBA at MIT Sloan, where I focused on studying and practicing commercializing scientific innovations. After MIT I founded an AI-driven drug discovery company that was also part of the MIT Startup Exchange.

We signed several pharmaceutical partnerships in Asia, including two here in Osaka. Most recently, I partnered with two neuroscience professors to launch Numb Corp., a biotech company specializing in protein engineering for neuroscience applications. We are developing a novel non-opioid drug for post-surgical pain management.

Why is this important? One, inadequate pain management solutions exist today, and two, the opioid crisis in the United States. According to the US National Institute of Health, there's 50 million adults in the US that live with inadequate pain management. And about 10 million Americans misused opioids in the past year.

Currently patients have three choices. They can be treated in the hospital. They can be prescribed opioids, or they can suffer with debilitating pain. The question we're faced with is how can we manage pain safely?

When treating pain with opioids, there are several risks that are faced. Opioids act systemically not regionally, leading to unintended issues. Opioids lead to addiction and dependence, resulting in societal challenges. An adequate pain control requires patient adherence.

We are working to develop a non-opioid drug that addresses these issues. We are engineering a first-in-class selective Intracellular Neurotransmission Blocker or INTB for short. The intention is that this drug will block the pain signal from the sensory neurons to the central nervous system, so that the patient will not feel pain.

Our drug will be delivered locally, not systemically. It will not be addictive or lead to dependence such as opioids do. It will be injected by a doctor and not require the patient adherence to drugs that opioids require. Big pharma tried to do this in the past, but ran into challenges, primarily because the data and the tools that were needed did not yet exist.

And at the time opioids were seen as a sufficient solution. At Numb Corp., our specialty is protein engineering for neuroscience applications. We're leveraging discoveries in neural cell types, advances in protein engineering, and nanomolar affinity binders, to be able to fill the gap in pain medication and fight the opioid crisis. My founding team includes me, Andrew Radin, an experienced biotech entrepreneur, Lief Fenno, a professor in protein engineering in neuroscience applications, who is also an addiction psychiatrist.

And his patents have been licensed to big pharma, and Tim Machado, a neuroscience professor who founded a company that was acquired by a top 10 global company. Our team has discovered a way to be able to selectively target sensory neurons that we filed patents on. Using this method, we are working to deliver a well-characterized neurotransmission-blocking protein that reliably blocks neurotransmission from inside the cell.

We are engineering a first-in-class novel protein that combines this well-characterized neurotransmission blocking protein with a peptide that is selective for sensory neurons, at nanomolar affinity. Combining these two results in a first-in-class selective INTB. Some of the interesting features about the neurotransmission blocking protein can only be shared under confidentiality.

So if this is interesting, I encourage you to engage with us further. We are currently designing our drug in silico and we are in discussions with academic partners to run our initial in vitro proof of concept studies. Our TPP is a biologic protein that's working to address subacute regional pain management.

It will be delivered in a single local injection that lasts on the order of one to two weeks. The drug will be devoid of addiction and dependence issues that opioids have. In my previous company, we signed four partnerships with Asia-based pharmaceutical companies, including two here in Osaka.

I personally have made more than a dozen trips to Japan in the past several years. And our team at Numb Corp. has engaged with several Japan-based biopharmaceutical companies. And so far we have really valued the process-driven approach to partnership.

We appreciate the opportunity to be here today at the intersection of established industrial leaders and innovative startups. We believe that at this intersection is where we can really translate discoveries into impact. We are interested in connecting with biopharma companies that are interested in pain management, specifically in post-surgical neuropathic and cancer-related pain.

We hope to benefit from your deep scientific expertise and scientific resources, specifically in in vitro sensory neuron assays, unique in vivo pain models, and accelerator programs that enable us to engage further with your company. Together, let's create a better way to manage pain safely. Thank you.

[SPEAKING JAPANESE]