Rutgers startup Zena Therapeutics is aiming to create safer prescription medications that could reduce or eliminate overdose risks, particularly for mental health treatments. Co-founded by Ariane Vasilatis and Elieen Carry, the company is developing a compound designed to avoid increased overdose risk when combined with depressants like opioids or alcohol.
“We believe that it is feasible and possible to design drugs and medications where death is not the end result of misuse, whether it’s accidental or on purpose as recreationally,” stated CEO Ariane Vasilatis. She co-founded the company with Elieen Carry, who serves as chief scientific officer.
Carry emphasized the need for a paradigm shift in medication use: “Right now, when it comes to narcotics drugs, the onus is on the patient to take the medication as prescribed, but that is not a guarantee.” The aim is to reduce overdose risk without losing efficacy.
Statistics from the National Institute on Drug Abuse highlight the urgency of their work; overdose deaths involving prescription opioids rose significantly from 1999 to 2017. Carry and Vasilatis see potential in their innovation to help those with addictive tendencies and those mixing medications with alcohol.
“We both have had family and friends succumbing to addiction and overdose, unfortunately, so we share a passion for this self-started project,” said Vasilatis. Their research focuses initially on anxiety medications as alternatives to benzodiazepines like Xanax or Valium.
“None of the current medications were optimized to reduce overdose risk, and we believe we can do that without compromising efficacy,” Carry noted. The next step involves moving these compounds into clinical trials.
The partnership between Vasilatis and Carry began during their doctoral studies at Rutgers University under Professor James Simon. Their collaboration led them through entrepreneurial training with Rutgers’ I-Corps program.
“The I-Corps training, both at Rutgers and the national program, was paramount for us because we needed to understand,” said Vasilatis. This helped them refine their business model by identifying market needs through interviews with prescribers and patients.
Zena Therapeutics has secured funding from several sources including New Jersey Health Foundation, Foundation Venture Capital Group LLC, and a Phase I NIH STTR grant allowing access to Rutgers core services.
“Our passion is what created Zena,” remarked Vasilatis. Deborah Perez Fernandez of Rutgers praised their focus on impactful research: “The innovation developed by Zena Therapeutics has the potential to make a positive change in the lives of so many people.”
Vince Smeraglia added support from Rutgers’ New Ventures team: “The opiate crisis is personal…and the New Ventures team is proud to continue supporting them.”
