NOCION is a biopharmaceutical company that is addressing vexing medical problems head on. We are developing “nocions”—a new kind of therapy that selectively affects actively firing nociceptors—to provide targeted, robust and sustained relief for the treatment of serious conditions including cough, itch, pain and inflammation.

Anchored in the well-understood physiology of nociceptors, our novel platform develops small molecules called nocions, which preferentially target activated sensory neurons that are responding to external insult. These inflamed sensory neurons are a source of cough, itch, pain and inflammation. More specifically, nocions are designed to only enter activated nociceptors via large-pore channels on these neurons that open in response to insult.
Once inside, nocions block all sodium channels. And because nocions are charged, they do not enter non-nociceptors or redistribute from nociceptors to local cells by passive diffusion. Thus, nocions are essentially trapped inside target cells to provide a targeted, robust and sustained effect that cannot be achieved with traditional small molecule anesthetics.

Other investigatory approaches to treating neurogenic inflammation include trying to develop molecules that either selectively block Nav 1.7 or antagonize large-pore channels. Both these approaches have been met with limited success due to undesired side effects and/or insufficient efficacy. In contrast, nocions only target activated sensory neurons using large-pore channels as doorways in and block all sodium channels in these cells.

Our focused platform may be applied to a broad range of applications. We’re actively finalizing leads to create a suite of product candidates intended to treat a wide variety of conditions.

Chronic cough is a significant unmet medical need with no proven standard of care. Nocions may provide benefit to patients with chronic idiopathic cough, post-infectious cough, IPF-cough, asthma-COPD overlap syndrome and additional inflammatory respiratory conditions.