Tremeau Closes $5.2 Million Equity Round to Repurpose Vioxx for Rare Diseases

Rare Daily Staff

Tremeau Pharmaceuticals said that it raised a total of $5.2 million in its first equity round to advance its pipeline of non-opioid pain treatment candidates for patients with rare diseases.

“The feedback from the patient, medical, and investor communities regarding our strategy of providing non-opioid pain treatments for rare diseases, like hemophilic arthropathy, has been very positive,” said Bradford Sippy, CEO of Tremeau. 

Hemophilic arthropathy is a degenerative joint disease occurring in patients with hemophilia and is caused by recurrent intra-articular bleeding. It is the largest cause of morbidity in patients with hemophilia. There are no medications are currently approved or licensed in the United States to treat HA. Patients with hemophilia are at a heightened risk for hemorrhaging, including gastrointestinal bleeding, which makes the use of traditional NSAIDs problematics. High potency opioids are the current standard of care to treat HA.

The company’s TRM-201, (rofecoxib) is a highly potent COX-2 selective non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug with a well-established efficacy profile and is the first and only product granted orphan designation status for the treatment for hemophilic arthropathy.

Merck previously marketed rofecoxib under the brand name Vioxx but withdrew it over concerns that the drug elevated the risk of heart attack and stroke. Rofecoxib is seen as well-suited for HA patients because it has no effect on bleeding time relative to placebo and is the only COX-2 selective NSAID ever approved in the United States to demonstrate a reduced risk of gastrointestinal bleeding versus a traditional NSAID in a controlled trial.

Tremeau plans to develop and commercialize rofecoxib for subsequent niche patient segments where it has a strong benefit to risk ratio versus other therapies.

In November, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted Orphan Drug designation to Tremeau for rofecoxib.

February 15, 2018
Photo: Bradford Sippy, CEO of Tremeau