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Surgery is never fun. But surgery during a global pandemic is an especially frightening prospect. When I went under the knife for a corrective hernia procedure recently, COVID-19 got added to the long list of potentially fatal outcomes I had to worry about.

Canada’s biotech health-care industry, brimming with small research-stage pharmaceutical companies that are preparing to bring a new drug, treatment or inoculation to market, is booming as part of a global trend after the COVID-19 pandemic spiked awareness in vaccines and all things medical.

We all know the brutal trajectory of North America’s opioid crisis: prescription abuse, addiction, overdoses. In the past year, more than 50,000 people have died from opioid overdoses, a toll exceeding even road accidents. And it keeps getting worse.

Good science takes time. This has always been clear to those of us doing health research — less so to the general public. In the pursuit of treatments for COVID-19, we need to manage expectations about what’s not just possible, but also desirable.

In March I wrote about Phase IIa results of a novel NSAID-like drug ATB-346 (now called otenaproxesul), which is structurally and functionally similar to naproxen (Aleve). But the non-opioid drug lacks its gastrointestinal side effects, especially ulcers. Now Phase IIb results are in and it still looks good. Will it become the first member of a novel class of pain drugs? We could sure use it.

Millions of people rely on pain relief drugs on a daily basis, but these treatments can carry significant side effects. Antibe Therapeutics CEO Daniel Legault details to Anthony Lacavera the startup’s new anti-inflammatory drug that provides pain relief in a novel way without the health risks associated with typical treatments.

Antibe Therapeutics, a Toronto-based pharmaceutical company, is evaluating an experimental drug in Phase II clinical trials that could be a much safer (and possibly more effective) option for the treatment of chronic pain and inflammation than anything we have now. And, although it is still too early to celebrate, the data so far isn’t simply good. It’s great.

This issue of BJP highlights the substantial breadth of research related to H₂S. Like NO and carbon monoxide, H₂S plays very important roles in a wide range of physiological and pathophysiological processes. Moreover, significant progress has been made in recent years towards targeting H₂S in drug design, with translation to human applications on the horizon.

John L. Wallace of Antibe Therapeutics highlights how Canadian innovation stands to put the country at the forefront of the next wave of global biopharmaceutical R&D.

If you’re experiencing a headache or pain in your joints, do you reach for an aspirin or Advil? These are common non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs found in almost every home and are among the most widely used drugs in the world. But while they are effective painkillers, most people are unaware of their dangerous effects on the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.

Toronto-based Antibe is focused on the development of a new generation of therapeutics for severe and acute pain. The company has combined a high-potency NSAID (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug) with cutting-edge science based on inflammation. The result is the company’s lead candidate, ATB-346, a hydrogen sulfide-releasing derivative of naproxen.

Hydrogen sulfide has a bad reputation, and deservedly so: not only does the gas smell of rotten eggs, but it is also so toxic that in large quantities it can cause respiratory failure and even death. But over the last 20 years, biologists have learned that the gas also helps keep the circulatory system functioning properly. Now physiologist Ingrid Fleming and her collaborators speculate that people with atherosclerosis might actually benefit from taking an oral supplement that generates hydrogen sulfide inside their bodies.

Emerging evidence suggests the impact of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) like Nurofen, Ibuprofen and Voltaren could be more far-reaching than previously thought, including serious bowel injury and autoimmune disease.