The CU Technology Transfer Office recently executed an option agreement with Colorado-based Xalud Therapeutics Inc., giving Xalud the right to commercialize a novel approach for treating neuropathic pain and other diseases of the central nervous system.

The company's lead product candidate, invented by Dr. Linda Watkins of CU-Boulder, is a proprietary, non-narcotic-based therapy that eliminates neuropathic pain in highly predictive, gold-standard rodent models. Xalud also believes its treatment approach might be effective against diseases of the central nervous system.

Neuropathic pain is a chronic, debilitating condition affecting millions of people in the U.S., and is expected to grow into an $8.5 billion market by 2018.