RudaCure (CEO Yongho Kim), a company specializing in sensory disorder treatment development, announced on the 21st that it has been selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' 'Scale-up TIPS' program, recognized for its non-narcotic analgesic development capabilities through ion channel modulation.
'Scale-up TIPS' is a government private investment-led R&D support program that enables promising technology-based SMEs and ventures to boldly pursue high-risk, innovative R&D. When a private operator invests KRW 1 billion or more, the government provides up to KRW 2 billion for investment-type R&D and up to KRW 1.2 billion over 3 years for investment-linked R&D.
Through this program, RudaCure plans to receive a total of KRW 1.2 billion in support over the next 3 years to accelerate the commercialization of its non-narcotic analgesic RCI002 project.
The compound discovered by RudaCure simultaneously acts on both the ion channel TRPV1 and MOR (Mu-Opioid Receptor). This is a differentiated non-narcotic analgesic approach that overcomes the addiction and tolerance issues of existing MOR-targeting narcotic analgesics while addressing the body temperature elevation side effects associated with TRPV1 channel modulation.
RudaCure stated, "Through this Scale-up TIPS selection, we have established a foundation for accelerating the commercialization of the RCI002 project. We will do our best to lead the next-generation non-narcotic analgesic market based on our ion channel modulation technology."
[Correction notice · 15 September 2026] The mechanism of action described for RCI002 (RC-0165) in this article reflects the company's position at the time of publication. Naloxone was subsequently shown to fully block analgesia in the MIA osteoarthritis model, and the company has corrected the description: RCI002 is not a TRPV1-MOR dual-target non-opioid analgesic but a mu-opioid receptor (MOR) agonist administered by intra-articular injection. The current description is on the pipeline page.
[Data provenance] The earlier TRPV1 inhibition data for RC-0165 were generated by Professor Yong Ho Kim’s team at Gachon University.