Kea Therapeutics Information

Kea Therapeutics Ltd is developing new drugs for the relief of moderate-to-severe acute pain. Kea is a new spin-out company formed with intellectual property from New Zealand's University of Auckland, investment from UniServices ( www.uniservices.co.nz) and backed by venture capital investment from the MRCF (www.mrcf.com.au) and Brandon Capital Partners (www.brandoncapital.com.au). While opioids are effective pain medications when used appropriately, they can be associated with unwanted side effects including risk of addiction, respiratory depression and opioid induced constipation that limit their clinical use. Working with scientists and clinicians at The University of Auckland, and with the support of UniServices we have completed an integrated drug discovery programme to develop a new drug which retained the positive, pain relieving features of ketamine, while removing significant side effects that limit its broader clinical use. We are completing development candidate selection studies and will take an optimized molecule into clinical development.