BioCentury
ARTICLE | Product Development

Key to bladder relief

March 12, 2007 7:00 AM UTC

KeyNeurotek AG thinks that KN 203, a mu opioid receptor agonist that it recently in-licensed from pain specialist Gruenenthal GmbH, will work as a treatment for urinary incontinence without causing constipation, analgesia or dependence.

It's well known that mu opioid agonists used to treat pain, like morphine and its synthetic derivatives, can cause these effects. However, Gruenenthal found that KN 203 is able to increase contraction intervals and the threshold pressure in the bladder at doses that are 10-100 times lower than doses needed to cause analgesia or to see side effects like constipation, CEO and co-founder Frank Striggow told BioCentury...