Hyloris Pharmaceuticals SA announced the development of a new proprietary formulation – a TRPV1 agonist - administered intranasally as a spray, to treat idiopathic rhinitis. Idiopathic rhinitis is a medical disorder characterized by a collection of nasal symptoms that resemble nasal allergies and hay fever (allergic rhinitis) but are not caused by a known cause like allergens or infectious triggers. Idiopathic rhinitis features an overexpression of TRPV1 in the nasal mucosa giving rise to nasal obstruction, rhinorrhoea (colloquially: a runny nose), and/or sneezing.

Hyloris' treatment approach is to activate and depolarize TRPV1 receptors leading to restoration of a normal function of the nasal mucosa. Current treatment options for idiopathic rhinitis are not consistently successful. This leads to unnecessary and often ineffective surgery for severe cases, such as nasal septal corrections and/or inferior turbinate reductions.

Rhinitis is defined as the presence of at least one of the following symptoms for more than 1 hour per day: nasal congestion/obstruction, rhinorrhoea, sneezing, and nasal itching. Chronic rhinitis can be divided into 3 phenotypes: allergic, infectious and non-allergic/non-infectious. For allergic and /infectious rhinitis, current medicinal products are available such as decongestant spray/tablets, antihistamines or corticosteroids.

Idiopathic rhinitis is the largest group within the non-allergic/non-infectious rhinitis group. It occurs in around 7% of the total population, representing an estimated 19 million people in the US alone. 13% of them have moderate to severe idiopathic rhinitis, leading them to actively seek specialist treatment and, who can not provide consistent treatment with the currently available therapy options.

These patients typically live through several years of failed treatment options, adding frustration and wasted expenses to the medical symptoms impacting their quality of life. Rapid relief through a nasal spray should reduce overall treatment costs, improve quality of life and make potentially unsuccessful surgical procedures redundant.