TAFALGIE THERAPEUTICS honoured with the CNRS Innovation Award presented to its co-founder and Scientific Director, Aziz Moqrich
- Dr Aziz Moqrich is one of the world’s leading specialists in the field of pain. His work has paved the way for first-in-class treatments that could transform the care of patients suffering from severe and chronic pain.
- This prestigious award highlights the significant strategic value of the collaboration between Tafalgie Therapeutics and the CNRS, in conjunction with SATT Sud-Est, a key player in technology transfer and the promotion of academic research.
Marseille (France), December 18, 2025 – TAFALGIE THERAPEUTICS, a biopharmaceutical company specialising in the research and development of new non-opioid pain treatments, is proud to announce that its co-founder and Scientific Director, Aziz Moqrich, has been awarded the CNRS 2025 Innovation Prize. Recognised as one of the most prestigious awards in scientific research in France, it honours those whose exceptional work has led to groundbreaking innovations.
Dr Aziz Moqrich receives this award in acknowledgement of his research work, which has led to major advances in understanding the mechanisms of pain and resulted in the creation of the biotechnology company Tafalgie Therapeutics in 2020. His project aims to develop a non-opioid alternative based on a new mechanism of action derived from the identification and understanding of the activity of a secreted endogenous protein called TAFA4.
Aziz Moqrich obtained his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Aix-Marseille in 2000. He then joined Professor Ardem Patapoutian’s laboratory at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in California as a postdoctoral fellow. Since 2005, he is head of the “Chronic Pain: Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms” team at the Institute of Developmental Biology of Marseille (IBDM), under the supervision of the CNRS and Aix-Marseille University.
A highly experienced opinion leader with over 20 years’ experience in research laboratory management, he currently supervises a team at the IBDM comprising eight CNRS researchers and PhD students, as well as a team of seven colleagues in the R&D department at Tafalgie Therapeutics, which he co-manages as Scientific Director and member of the Executive Board.
His scientific contributions have been recognised internationally. He is the lead author of more than forty international publications. He has also served as Vice-President of the ANR (Neuro-CE-16, 2017-2020) and acts as an expert reviewer for leading scientific journals and various national and international research funding agencies.
Throughout his career, Aziz Moqrich has been honoured with numerous awards, including:
• Axel Kahn Prize 2025, awarded by the League Against Cancer
• Provence Departmental Research Prize, Grand Prix Category 2024
• SATT Innovation Trophy 2022
• Best Moroccan Researcher in the World Award 2019
• Unité-Guerra-Paul-Beaudouin-Lambrecht-Maïano Foundation Award, Institut de France 2016
He is also the recipient of a grant from the European Research Council (ERC) and has been awarded the FRM Team label by the Foundation for Medical Research.
“This CNRS distinction rewards years of research into pain. This particularly prestigious award never recognises a single individual: it crowns years of effort, doubt and experimentation. I am thinking of my teams at the IBDM in Marseille. Their unfailing commitment, exemplary scientific rigour and intellectual audacity have been essential to each of our advances. Thanks to their collective energy, we have been able to open up valuable avenues for the effective management of pain for patients. This long-term work is now shared by the teams at Tafalgie Therapeutics, of which I am the co-founder and Scientific Director. I would also like to acknowledge the role of SATT Sud-Est, whose support has been crucial in ensuring the transfer of our fundamental research to applied research and its practical applications. This distinction highlights the entire continuum between public and private research,” says Aziz Moqrich, co-founder and Scientific Director of Tafalgie Therapeutics.
This award provides an opportunity to highlight a remarkable example of cooperation between public research stakeholders and the business world. At the heart of this dynamic, the support of SATT Sud-Est played a key role, ensuring from the outset that the initial scientific results of Dr. Aziz Moqrich’s team at IBDM were secured and that appropriate maturation mechanisms were put in place.
With the founding of Tafalgie Therapeutics in 2020, a new milestone was reached in the close collaboration between academic expertise and private innovation. Research collaboration agreements with the CNRS have been signed and renewed since the company’s inception as part of an exemplary approach designed to promote the transition from fundamental academic research to applied research for market exploitation. Co-founded by Aziz Moqrich and supported by SATT-SE (the company’s first institutional shareholder), this IBDM spin-off aims to offer new non-opioid pain-relieving peptides with a novel mechanism of action. This groundbreaking new solution is currently in clinical development in humans, with an initial study (‘Tafafirst’) being conducted by Tafalgie Therapeutics.
About TAFALGIE THERAPEUTICS
TAFALGIE THERAPEUTICS is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation pain treatments without the side effects of opioids.
Its research is based on the characterization of TAFA4, an endogenous protein which modulates pain signals passing between peripheral sensory neurons and the central nervous system. Derived from this protein, the drug candidates developed by the company aim to relieve and prevent acute or chronic pain (inflammatory, neuropathic) and post-operative pain, without the risks of the most commonly used analgesics (sedation, respiratory and digestive problems, tolerance and dependence). Responding to a medical need that is unsatisfied on a global scale, TAFALGIE THERAPEUTICS was founded in October 2020. A spin-off from CNRS and Aix-Marseille University, it is supported by Bpifrance and the EIC Accelerator program.
Funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the responsible authority can be held responsible for them.
About SATT Sud-Est
The Technology Transfer Company (SATT) supports companies of all sizes in innovating through the transfer of technologies from public research institutions. It acts as a conduit between the knowledge generated by researchers in public research laboratories in the South of France and Corsica regions and the socio-economic world. SATT Sud-Est offers market analysis, intellectual property strategy, support for research and development strategy, legal and intellectual property protection, financing and development of technological maturity up to proof of concept, then marketing, networking with other deep tech players/financiers and licensing of intellectual property assets carried by the projects promoted. It also carries out innovation awareness-raising activities and training for players in the ecosystem and its shareholders.