JanOne Inc. (“JanOne”) (Nasdaq: JAN), has executed a term sheet to acquire Soin Therapeutics in a deal worth $30 million. JanOne Inc. is a leader in developing non-addictive and pain-relieving drugs. With this acquisition, JanOne is set to redefine how CRPS (an orphan disease) is treated. This will be JanOne’s second clinical stage product. Soin Therapeutics has developed a patent-pending, novel formulation of low-dose naltrexone which is now called JAN123.
The inventor of the novel formulation and the founder of Soin Therapeutics is from Dayton, Ohio which is an epicenter of the opioid crisis and he has first-handed experienced the city’s challenges with the crisis.
“We are excited to join with JanOne in advancing our product for CRPS,” said Amol Soin, M.D., Soin Therapeutic’s founder and CEO. “In my medical practice, I was frustrated by the lack of options for treating CRPS, which led me to start investigating products that might provide relief for my patients. I have been very encouraged by the early clinical data we have generated and look forward to working with the team at JanOne to advance this product to the marketplace.”
History of Soin Therapeutics and the motivation behind the Low Dose Naltrexone (now JAN123)
Soin Therapeutics was founded by Dr. Amol Soin in Dayton, Ohio. He had experienced the struggles of people fighting with CRPS, which is an orphan disease (as classified by National Organization of Rare Diseases (NORD)).
Since forever, there has been an absence of a reliable solution for CRPS because of only a limited number of people getting affected by it. Less than 200,000 people in America are actually affected by CRPS and developing a treatment for it has huge costs linked to it.
CRPS leads to severe pain along with extreme swelling, limited range of motion, changes to the skin or bone structure, and debilitating pain. Because of an absence of a treatment, doctors have sometimes prescribe opioids which possibly may have contributed to the opioid crisis in Ohio in some ways.
Developing Low Dose Naltrexone (now JAN123)
This prompted Dr. Soin to work on a treatment. “About 10 years ago – I realized we were in the midst of an opioid crisis. More people in Ohio were dying of drug overdoses than in car accidents. Drug overdose became the most likely cause of death for younger people. I knew we had to act. We had to find new ways to manage pain without addicting pain killers. Thus I started researching ways to treat pain. This led me to invent new therapies and attempt to treat pain without addiction.” said Dr. Amol Soin.
The low dose naltrexone, or LDN (now JAN123) has also been granted orphan drug status by the FDA. This status gives multiple advantages to JAN123, including 7 years of market exclusivity and others. It can relieve CRPS symptoms (as per Anecdotal reports) at very low doses (approximately 1/10th or less dose) of currently approved indications. The best part is the ease of use as it is a single oral pill to be taken at night.
Tony Isaac, JanOne’s CEO commented, “Our original product, JAN101, targets the underlying disease that results in pain associated with PAD. With JAN123, we have added a product that treats the pain itself”.
Who is Dr. Amol Soin?
Amol Soin is a pain management physician, inventor, and researcher with 5 college degrees (2 from Ivy League Schools, Dartmouth and Brown). Dr. Soin also serves on the Ohio medical board appointed to two 5 year terms by Governor Kasich and is the past president of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP).
He was recently featured on Lifetime television (September 12th, 2022) for the show called “Behind The Mystery”. This feature talked about Soin’s drug and a local patient from Dayton also joined this show to talk about the benefits of LDN. Dr. Soin was also featured in a podcast on Entrepreneur.com.
The Future Ahead
JanOne Inc. works on innovative and actionable solutions that hold the potential to eradicate the opioid crisis. After the acquisition, JanOne plans to take JAN123 forward with GMP manufacturing and clinical trials.
JanOne has planned to file an IND in 2023 and begin clinical development in the same year.