Pain affects more than 30% of adults around the world, and yet the only current options to deal with it either can harm your liver or be highly addictive. This is why it’s big news that local company South Rampart Pharma just finished Phase 1 trials on a pain killer that has shown neither of these issues. The company’s co-founder and John Ochsner Endowed Professor of Surgery in Innovation, Dr. Hernan Bazan, talks more about this exciting opportunity and what’s next in getting his drug to market.
about
Hernan Bazan, MD DFSVS FACS, is the CEO and co-founder of South Rampart Pharma. He is spearheading the scientific, clinical development, and fundraising of South Rampart Pharma, Inc. and technology development efforts. As an academic vascular surgeon, he is the John Ochsner Endowed Professor of Surgery in Innovation. His clinical interests include treating carotid artery disease and acute stroke, using minimally invasive approaches to aortic aneurysms and peripheral arterial disease, and managing acute post-operative pain. Over the years, Dr. Hernan Bazan has realized the significant clinical and societal need for safer and non-addictive pain relief in ambulatory and post-operative settings. From these critical unmet needs, South Rampart Pharma, Inc. was founded in 2016 to develop safer, non-opioid therapies for acute and chronic pain. Dr. Hernan Bazan authored the first manuscript describing the library of analgesic compounds’ synthesis, lack of hepatoxicity analgesic characterization, and antipyretic properties, published in September 2020 in the European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. He is the co-PI of an NIH/NINDS SSTTR ‘fast-track’ grant (2020 – 2023), supporting various CRO’s and CDMO’s pre-clinical and formulation development of the lead pain asset. He is the co-inventor 7 issued or pending patents and has authored over 50 publications. Dr. Hernan Bazan received a B.S. in Molecular Biology (Vanderbilt University). In medical school spent two years as a Howard Hughes Medical Institutes (HHMI) Research Scholar at the NIH. He earned an M.D. (Georgetown University), followed by a General Surgery Residency (Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York) and a Vascular Surgery Fellowship (Yale University).