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Biodol Therapeutics invents a remedy for chronic pain

Information updated on 03/11/23

Incubated at Montpellier BIC, Montpellier startup Biodol Therapeutics is developing the first medicine specifically for chronic neuropathic pain that affects millions of patients. A gem for Montpellier's French Tech.

Fabien Granier, président de Biodol Therapeutics©David Richard

Fabien Granier, CEO of Biodol Therapeutics ©David Richard

The causes of chronic neuropathic pain are highly diverse, from surgical interventions and lumbago to diabetes, cancer, HIV, and more.

“Pain is due to a lesion in peripheral nerves. Today’s medical drugs are not able to treat it adequately,” explains Fabien Granier, CEO of Biodol Therapeutics.

Founded in 2015, the Montpellier biotechnology company discovered the mechanism specific to the phenomenon and identified the compounds that deactivate the protein in question. The company’s discoveries are protected by four patents. The therapeutic prototype is currently the focus of a pre-clinical study being carried out on rodents.

“We have tested it in different scenarios and the pain was blocked every time,” confirms the CEO.

One of French Tech’s most inventive companies

The startup, which benefited from assistance by Montpellier BIC, wants to demonstrate the effectiveness of its compounds on humans within the next few years. Biodol Therapeutics hopes to revolutionize the treatment of incapacitating pain thanks to its therapeutic innovation, currently being worked on by four researchers at the Montpellier Neuroscience Institute, where tests are carried out, and four other scientists at the Strasbourg Therapeutic Innovation Laboratory, where the biochemical compounds are designed.

Today, half of all patients are treated by antidepressants or antiepileptics,” explains Fabien Granier. Those medications target symptoms but do not treat the cause. “Other solutions based on opioids such as morphine carry risks of dependence and certain other dangerous side effects,” he says.

Biodol Therapeutics is hosted at the Cap Alpha incubator in Clapiers just north of Montpellier and was selected by Challenges magazine in 2018 as one of 100 startups in France in which investment is a good idea. In September 2019, Forbes magazine listed the company as one of the top 100 most inventive startups in French Tech. “Academic research and startup assistance structures make the Montpellier Métropole area an ideal ecosystem for innovation in France,” adds Fabien Granier.