Scilex announces new data from deeper skin penetrating studies on SP-103

Scilex announced a peer-review publication which contains results of skin penetration studies conducted at the Institute for Biomedical Research and Technologies, Graz, Austria. A set of studies assessed drug delivery from SP-103, ZTlido and control using open flow microperfusion. Interstitial fluid from the dermis, subcutaneous adipose tissue, and muscle was continuously sampled to assess drug penetration in all tissue layers. Ex vivo and in vivo experiments showed a higher diffusive transport of lidocaine compared to diclofenac. The data showed a clear contribution of diffusive transport to lidocaine concentration, with SP-103 resulting in a significantly higher lidocaine concentration in muscle tissue than commercially available ZTlido. The Company believes that these results indicate that SP-103 is highly effective in delivering lidocaine into muscle tissue in areas of localized pain for the treatment of musculoskeletal pain disorders. “We have developed SP-103 to deliver a triple strength formulation of lidocaine per given area of skin covered by the Topical Delivery System. Current results of skin penetration studies for the first time had demonstrated uptake of lidocaine by muscle tissue via a passive diffusion through the skin. This data supports our supposition that a higher dose strength product may be very useful in expanding the indication beyond peripheral neuropathic pain (Post-Herpetic Neuralgia), to other types of pain, including nociceptive musculoskeletal pain, like non-radicular neck and low back pain. We are very excited about these results supporting our clinical development plans,” said Dmitri Lissin, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Scilex