The novel serotype E botulinum neurotoxin for treating focal musculoskeletal pain is the lead product candidate of biotech company Bonti Inc. (Newport Beach, Calif.).

It has a mechanism of action similar to the marketed "Botox" products, though it has a differentiated clinical profile,” says Fauad Hasan, president, CEO and co-founder of Bonti.

Hasan notes that it has a fast 24-hour onset of action and a short 3- to 4-week duration of effect. This is in contrast to currently marketed "Botox" products, “which have an onset of action around 3 to 7 days and a duration of effect about 3 to 4 months,” he says. The unique target clinical profile "may be well suited for a vast range of aesthetic and therapeutic uses, including for the treatment of postsurgical and nonsurgical musculoskeletal pain, with currently unmet needs,” Hasan tells The Aesthetic Channel. Focal musculoskeletal pain is a root cause of postsurgical and of nonsurgical pain. “It can address muscle spasms and hyperactivity incurred by surgery or in nonsurgical conditions because it prevents the release of acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction, thereby temporarily inhibiting spasms,” Hasan explains. “By hindering spasms, it attacks the source of the pain.”

Conversely, opioids and other pain relief drugs “work by blocking the sensory nerve signals sent to the brain, not the spasm that is initiating the pain,” Hasan says. “It may be a significant addition to physicians’ postsurgical and nonsurgical condition multimodal pain management options to treat pain effectively, while reducing the use of opioids to help address the opioid epidemic,” Hasan says.

Source: http://aestheticchannel.modernmedicine.com