By Amy LeBlanc
We all know how dramatic and disruptive pain can be. Impossible to ignore, a simple stubbed toe may only lead to a moment of distraction, but chronic conditions have crippling effects on our long-term wellbeing.
Biodol Therapeutics, a French start-up founded in 2015, is developing novel pain treatments by addressing the interplay between nerves and the immune system. Fabien Granier, CEO of Biodol, says: “In a billion-dollar market dominated by ineffective and dangerous drugs, our unique approach could reduce the suffering of millions of people in chronic pain.”
It’s estimated that as many as one in five people around the world suffer from pain. Yet a striking feature of the $23-billion chronic pain market is that most treatments only aim to reduce symptoms, without addressing the root cause of the problem.
One reason for this is the complexity of chronic pain as an indication. There are three main types: nociceptive pain, caused by tissue damage or inflammation (e.g. arthritis or lower back pain); nociplastic pain, arising from altered sensory pathways (e.g. fibromyalgia); and neuropathic pain, a result of nerve damage or disease (e.g. surgery, chemotherapy, or diabetes).
“Neuropathic pain occurs when a nerve has been damaged, but the pain response can persist even after the original cause has resolved or is no longer present,” Granier explains. Unfortunately, there are currently no specific treatments for this type of chronic pain. Neuropathic pain patients are usually prescribed repurposed drugs to try to calm their firing nerves, with antidepressants and antiepileptics making up 60% of the market. But these repurposed drugs are less than ideal. “Only half of patients find that their pain is reduced by even 30%, and a third of patients experience side effects,” he says.
Biodol’s journey began with an academic breakthrough about ten years ago. “Our founding scientists discovered that the underlying cause of neuropathic pain was an interaction between the nervous and immune system,” says Granier.
Specifically, neuropathic pain develops when cytokines trigger a cascade by stimulating a receptor called FLT3 on the damaged nerves. Published in Nature Communications in 2018, this basic research opened the door to a completely novel method for tackling the issue.
Biodol has since created small molecules that act “as keys in a lock”, on the damaged nerves, blocking the receptors so they can’t be incorrectly activated by the immune system. Because these receptors have highly specific extracellular domains, the method is very targeted, “giving these compounds a safe profile for a daily, chronic use,” says Granier.
The inhibitors were shown to be very effective in pre-clinical studies with mice, and Biodol’s drug BDT272 has now completed the first phases of clinical testing in healthy volunteers.
As a non-opioid, oral monotherapy, Biodol’s drug has the potential to be a ‘Holy Grail’ solution for patients with neuropathic pain. But that’s only one half of its promise. In 2024, Biodol’s academic partners published another groundbreaking discovery in Nature Communications, demonstrating that FLT3 inhibitors can be administered in combination with opioids, making these powerful painkillers “stronger but also much safer for patients,” says Granier.
Opioids are a type of potent pain-relieving medications, which include commonly prescribed analgesics like morphine, oxycodone, and fentanyl. “Opioids are extremely effective at combatting pain,” Granier explains. “But when they are used long-term, the body starts developing tolerance to opioids — meaning you need increasingly high doses to achieve the same level of pain relief.” Paradoxically, a subsection of people also develop hyperalgesia, where they experience an increase in pain sensitivity.
To combat this waning effectiveness, some patients end up taking higher doses of opioids than have been prescribed or turn to illicit substances. Opioid addiction carries serious risk of harm, as overdoses can lead to respiratory depression and even death. The severity of the crisis differs by country and prescription standards — in the United States, for example, the current opioid epidemic leads to the death of around 50,000 people each year, with one in three adults reporting that they or a family member have been addicted to opioids.
Incredibly, when co-administered with morphine in pre-clinical experiments, Biodol’s compound demonstrated its ability to not only increase the potency of morphine, but also to reverse opioid tolerance and hyperalgesia after they had developed.
“The implications are tremendous,” says Granier. “FLT3 inhibition opens an entirely new avenue for chronic pain management, where the power of opioids can be harnessed far more safely, without dose escalation leading to severe side effects and addiction.”
In retrieving the analgesic effect of morphine even after it has been lost, Biodol’s approach also “sparks hope for the many patients in chronic pain, for whom opioid treatments are no longer effective,” he says.
Biodol’s Phase I clinical trial for its lead compound BDT272 concluded in March 2026. “The preliminary data looks great, and we have a green light to start Phase 2,” says Granier.
The company is planning two parallel clinical tracks. With one Phase 2 trial, the company will test BDT272 as a monotherapy for peripheral neuropathic pain, using a standard pain score as the readout for the treatment’s effectiveness. The other Phase 2 trial will examine BDT272 as a combination therapy with morphine administered for post-surgical pain.
“After surgery, people self-administer morphine with the click of a button as they’re recovering in the hospital bed,” Granier explains. “So in this trial, we plan to measure the reduction in opioid consumption when the morphine is combined with our compound. Pain is very subjective, but this method should give us a very clear picture of the dose-sparing effect of our drug.”
To prepare for this next phase of clinical development, the company has secured non-dilutive funding and appointed Marie Gourlay-Chu as Biodol’s new Chief Medical Officer and Loïc Laplanche as Chief Operating Officer. The Phase 2 trials will both take place in France, starting in early 2027.
Biodol is expanding its pipeline with other compounds and indications, while preparing for Phase 3 by advancing scale-up activities for BDT272 batches for trials and future commercial supply. To support these development activities, the company is now looking to secure a €40 million Series B. To date, Biodol has secured €30 million in a combination of non-dilutive and dilutive funding, including support from V-Bio Ventures since 2020.
In March 2026, Biodol signed a licensing agreement with the Japanese company Kyorin Pharmaceutical to develop and commercialize BDT272 as a monotherapy for neuropathic pain in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. “The Kyorin option agreement was set up in 2025, contingent on the completion of the Phase 1 trials,” says Granier. “Kyorin has now decided to activate their licensing option, to initiate their own trials in Japan.” Biodol is also in ongoing discussions with other potential partners for commercialization in other territories.
If all goes well with the remaining clinical trials, Granier is confident that Biodol’s drug will drastically change the chronic pain landscape — by addressing the unmet need in neuropathic pain, but also by improving opioid use.
“Our primary focus is on neuropathic pain, where the unmet medical need remains very high. But we are also exploring additional indications, such as migraine and osteoarthritic pain, where our mechanism may offer a differentiated approach. Our ambition is to demonstrate that our FLT3 negative allosteric modulators can redefine pain treatment, enabling a platform approach across multiple major pain indications,” says Granier.
Regarding the combination treatments, he says: “Many people think of opioids as dirty drugs. They receive a lot of bad press. But the reason we keep using them is because they are extraordinarily strong analgesics. If our compounds can help maintain that initial potency without the development of tolerance and hyperalgesia, then we can give opioids a new lease on life — providing patients with the safe and effective pain treatments they deserve.”
