Alyra Biotech
In 2017, A/Prof Evans founded Alyra Biotech to develop new and truly innovative products for pelvic pain in women. Women with pelvic pain and many other pain related symptoms have excess activation of the immune connections between the uterus and the central nervous system: The Uterus-Brain Axis.
After 20 years caring for women with pain, she knew that health practitioners didn’t have enough options to offer their patients. They were keen to help them, but current treatments weren’t always effective.
Alyra Biotech develops products to reduce the excessive immune activation in the uterus found in women with these conditions. Patents have been awarded in the United States, China and Australia with further patent jurisdictions pending.
Pelvic pain in women has been under-researched and under-recognised. It’s a field of medicine that has been left behind, missing out on the innovation seen in so many other areas of healthcare.
It was time for new ways to treat pain, especially pain in women.
In addition to gynaecological concerns, Alyra Biotech’s products have potential to benefit conditions including Irritable Bowel Syndrome, pelvic pain, headache, and mood disorder. These conditions are all more common in women than men, and more common in women with severe period pain.
Alyra Biotech’s clinical trials are funded through the CUREator Grant program following extensive due diligence. This financial backing through Australia’s Medical Research Future Fund allowed Alyra Biotech to complete first-in-human clinical trials in 2024. Alyra Biotech has now commenced a larger trial of the Alyra Device. More information is available at www.alyrabiotech.com and women who live in Adelaide are welcome to apply to join the trial.
Alyra Biotech collaborates with TekCyte Limited, the University of Adelaide, the University of South Australia, SAHMRI and the Pelvic Pain Foundation of Australia.
The Alyra Biotech Advisory Board is privileged to include Professor Mark Hutchinson, Dr Annalisa Jenkins, Ms Kathy Harrison, Ms Kathy Allen, Ms Karin Innes, Ms Nina Stenroos, Dr Pirjo Kortesuo and Mr Harri Jukarainen.
To find out more about the Alyra Biotech Clinical Trial, visit our website.
The Language of Pelvic Pain
Diagnosis in medicine relies on matching how patients describe pain with what sort of conditions usually cause that type of pain.
That’s fine for most types of pain, but the Language of Pelvic Pain hasn’t been well described. For too long her pain descriptions haven’t been understood. This means that a doctor can find it hard to match her pain with the pain conditions they learned about during their medical training.
Dr Ellie Schofield, Dr Susan Evans and Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex are involved in ongoing research to improve communication between women with pain and the health professionals who care for them. Maybe you were you one of the 1034 women who joined the Language of Pelvic Pain Survey? If so, thank you!
You can read the full (free) version of the first peer-reviewed paper to come from this project at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38803121/
You can listen to more about the Language of Pelvic Pain at the link below. This is an ongoing project, with many more important findings anticipated.
All designed to make it easier for both sides of the consultation desk to understand each other.
This video is copyright Prof Roly Sussex and the Pelvic Pain Foundation of Australia.
It is made available through Creative Commons BY-NC-N
