The #1 reason why menopausal women see the doctor
Episodes of highly unpleasant, debilitating blushing, known as hot flashes (or hot flushes), occur in 75% of women and are the #1 reason why menopausal women see the doctor.
Hot flashes also occur in certain groups of female and male cancer patients, and some cancer patients refuse therapy due to hot flashes.
The hormonal (estrogen replacement) therapy used for treating hot flashes is controversial and, for some patients, harmful. Non-hormonal therapy is needed.
Company
Zharko Pharma is a pharmaceutical startup that develops a novel, non-hormonal treatment for hot flashes. The company was founded in August of 2019 by Andrej Romanovsky, a Russian-born physiologist and neuroscientist with extensive expertise in body temperature regulation.
The company’s name is a transliteration of the Russian adverb жарко (žárko), which means hot, like in feeling uncomfortably hot. While other pharmaceutical companies target the blushing itself, Zharko Pharma targets the deleterious feeling of heat discomfort.
Technology
Zharko Pharma capitalizes on the new understanding of heat discomfort in hot flashes, as part of the technology invented by Professor Romanovsky during his tenure at Dignity Health (presently, CommonSpirit Health) DBA St. Joseph’s Hospital DBA Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona (1999-2019).
His research at Dignity Health resulted in the development of multiple experimental models to study heat discomfort in hot flashes and led to the discovery that certain non-hormonal compounds block this discomfort. Zharko Pharma, a spin-off from Dignity Health, has an exclusive, worldwide license for this technology.
Zharko Pharma’s goal is to develop the cure for the thermal discomfort associated with hot flashes.
Partners
CommonSpirit Health announces its partnership with Zharko Pharma Inc aimed at developing a non-hormonal treatment of hot flashes.
