Yale's Stephen Waxman to collaborate with Convergence Pharmaceuticals on chronic pain

UK-based Convergence Pharmaceuticals Holdings, focused on developing analgesic medicines, is to collaborate with Stephen Waxman of Yale University, USA, on Nav1.7 mutations in chronic pain disorders.

Dr Waxman, who is the Bridget Flaherty Professor of Neurology, Neurobiology and Pharmacology at Yale University, will aim to identify patient groups likely to respond to Nav1.7 blockers and initiate clinical studies in collaboration with Convergence.

A pharmacological evaluation of Nav1.7 gain of function mutations identified in patients suffering from chronic paroxysmal pain disorders such as erythromelalgia, small fiber neuropathy and paroxysmal extreme pain disorders, will be performed to discover selective drug therapy matched to a pain genotype.