Demonstrated clinical effectiveness
The activity of UDB412 in Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) was discovered serendipitously by Dr. Manders, UndauntedBio's co-founder and Chief Medical Officer. He suffered from TN and hypothesized that a drug he had used over 20 years ago to treat (off-label) the pain of post-herpetic neuralgia (shingles) would work for TN. Obtaining the drug and testing in an ”n-of-1” trial gave impressive results – a complete reversal of TN pain, with lasting effects.
Why repurposing?
We believe that repurposing drugs, especially if there is clinical evidence of effectiveness in humans, offers a potentially faster path to delivering therapies that impact patients suffering from debilitating neuropathic pain conditions. In our case, repurposing this drug for Trigeminal Neuralgia is a great example of “reverse translation” or “bedside-to-bench”, i.e. applying what we observe in patients to drive the discovery of new therapies.
Repurposing with AI
We are leveraging over 30 years of experience applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to drug discovery, to build an innovative clinically-informed, AI-driven platform combining Large Language Models and knowledge graphs coupled with novel cell-based models of neuropathic pain.
We are using the platform to interrogate the MOA of UDB412, learn more about targets in neuropathic pain, and explore other neuropathic pain indications. Combined with traditional and generative chemistry, we intend to use the platform to search for novel NCEs for neuropathic pain.
