EicOsis Human Health Named One of Nation's Most Fundable Companies

EicOsis Human Health, Inc., a clinical startup co-founded by UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock to alleviate chronic pain without the use of opioids, has been named one of Pepperdine Graziadio Business School’s 2024 Most Fundable Companies. EicOsis is one 18 recipients from a competitive pool of more than 2000 U.S. startups and notable in being a pharmacology company. 

The seventh annual list features companies from diverse sectors, including FinTech, AgTech, Healthcare, Industrial Automation, Consumer Packaged Goods, and Advanced Materials.

Hammock, who holds a joint appointment with the Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, co-founded EicOsis (pronounced eye-co-sis) in 2011  to “provide a new alternative to treat pain and inflammation without the side effects of opioids and other standard pain therapies.”

The Davis-based company recently completed testing a drug candidate in Phase 1 human clinical trials with their lead candidate EC5026 that inhibits soluble Epoxide Hydrolase (sEH), a key regulatory enzyme. “Inhibiting sEH increases the levels of naturally occurring inflammation resolving and pain-relieving compounds,” said Hammock, who served as the first CEO of EicOsis and transitioned to scientific officer and chairman of the board of directors in 2023. “The clinical trial showed no side effects.” 

Chronic Pain Affects 100 Million Americans

“Chronic pain affects 100 million Americans alone, and the increased prescription of opioids has led to a widespread public health emergency, the U.S. Opioid Crisis,” Hammock added. “Our company seeks to meet the unmet need for safe, non-addictive and effective pain medications that can help pain patients and fight the opioid crisis.”

In the United States alone, more than 81,000 people died of opioid overdose deaths in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and more than 2.1 million people are addicted. The Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative reports that the opioid epidemic In the 1990s, was "fueled by widespread overprescribing of opioids for pain management. This situation has led to significant reductions in appropriate opioid prescribing for pain at a time when safer and effective pain management strategies are not available to millions of Americans who live with pain.”

“At EicOsis, our mission is to develop new effective and safe oral medicines to help people suffering from pain and inflammation,” said EicOsis co-founder and scientist Cindy McReynolds, who succeeded Hammock as CEO in 2023. “We are committed to improving the lives of those suffering from pain, helping them feel themselves again.”

EicOsis derives its name from eicosanoid, “the major backbone of chemical mediators in the arachidonate cascade,” said McReynolds, a UC Davis alumna who holds a doctorate in pharmacology and toxicology. “It symbolizes the epoxide group in chemistry, which is key to the anti-inflammatory chemical mediators and where the biochemical target called soluble epoxide hydrolase works.”

Pepperdine Graziadio Business School selects the recipients on their potential to make a significant impact, using criteria based on financial projections, market opportunity, intellectual property, competitive advantage, and the strength of their management teams.

“Being named one of the Most Fundable Companies offers founders an exceptional opportunity to distinguish themselves,” said Pepperdine alumnus John Figuerora, founder and executive chairman of CarepathRx. “These companies represent the future, and investors should take notice.”

Deborah Crown, dean of the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, said the business school supports entrepreneurs at every stage of their journey. “Our goal is to provide the education and resources they need to succeed, regardless of age or experience."

EicOsis won the “Sacramento Region Innovator of the Year” in 2019 in the medical health/biopharmaceutical category. The program “recognizes the area's vibrant innovation community—from emerging to established companies—and their breakthrough creations,” according to sponsors Stoel Rives LLP, Moss Adams LLP and the Sacramento Business Journal.

Fifty Years of Research

For the past 50 years, Hammock has been studying sEH inhibitors, leading to drugs that target such diseases as diabetes, hypertension (heart disease), Alzheimer's disease, and cancer. He and Sarjeet Gill (now a UC Riverside distinguished professor emeritus) co-discovered a soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) at UC Berkeley when they were doctoral students in the lab of John Casida and were researching how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. “This work on the sEH illustrates that you never know where good science can take you,“ Professor Gill commented.

Hammock, a member of the UC Davis faculty since 1980, is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the recipient of scores of awards, including the first McGiff Memorial Awardee in Lipid Biochemistry; and the Bernard B. Brodie Award in Drug Metabolism, sponsored by the America Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

Hammock witnessed the depths of acute and chronic pain when he served as a medical officer with the U.S. Army Academy of Health Science, San Antonio. "The frustration of seeing the effects of terrible pain coupled with the inability to effectively treat it has led me on a life-long quest to address pain and related illnesses,” said Hammock. “The study of this enzyme and the natural mediators it regulates has the added benefit of providing deeper understanding of diseases from heart failure to Alzheimer’s which in turn is leading to new treatments.”