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Rick Batycky, President & CEO, Nocion Therapeutics
Rick Batycky came to biotech the long way — through oil and gas engineering, a detour into academia, and a growing fascination with the lungs and how substances move through biological tissue. That curiosity eventually led him to help build some of the field’s most innovative inhalation programs, including the inhaled levodopa therapy Inbrija® at Civitas Therapeutics, one of the first times inhalation technology was used to target the central nervous system. Now, as President and CEO of Nocion Therapeutics, he is bringing that same instinct for underexplored territory to an area of medicine that has seen almost no therapeutic innovation in more than six decades: chronic cough.
In this Q&A, Batycky explains what drew him to the Nocion platform and its novel class of charged sodium channel blockers, how the company’s locally delivered approach to silencing overactive sensory nerves differs fundamentally from the oral therapies dominating the field, and why the ASPIRE Phase 2b trial — with a data readout expected later this year — represents a defining moment for the company. He also discusses the pipeline opportunity beyond cough, the lean and gritty culture he has built at Nocion, and why he believes the industry’s reluctance to talk openly about failure is one of the costliest habits in drug development.
June 8, 2026
Your Story
Q1. What was the defining moment or insight that led you to take the helm of Nocion Therapeutics?
I have always been motivated by the chance to learn something new or attempt something that has never been done before. I trained originally as a chemical engineer in oil and gas, but found myself increasingly drawn to human and biological systems — particularly the lungs and how substances move through tissue. That curiosity pulled me into biotech, first as a professor, then into product development at Advanced Inhalation Research and later at Civitas Therapeutics, where I helped steward the company through development, acquisition, and the FDA approval of Inbrija®, an inhaled therapy designed to restore motor control for Parkinson’s patients. That was one of the first times inhalation had been used to target the central nervous system, and it fit exactly with my desire to work at the edge of what is possible.
Around that time, an investor colleague approached me about leading a new venture focused on large pore channels in nociceptors — the sensory nerve cells involved in pain, cough, and itch. What struck me immediately was how little innovation had happened in this space over the prior few decades, and the opportunity to work on small-molecule discovery rather than late-stage development. It is exciting to dive into science that is genuinely underserved, where the questions are hard, and the need is real.
Q2. In plain terms, what does Nocion do — and why does it matter for patients?
Coughing is one of the most common medical complaints in the United States, driving as many as 30 million doctor visits per year. For most people it is a temporary nuisance, but for an estimated 9 million American adults living with refractory or unexplained chronic cough, it is something far more disruptive. This is a condition that can persist for decades without meaningful relief, and it can quietly take over a person’s life. People quit jobs, stop making plans, and avoid public settings altogether because they cannot control it.
At Nocion, we want to give those patients their freedom back. Our approach targets the overactive sensory nerves in the airway that are driving the cough response, delivering therapy directly to the site of the problem rather than through the bloodstream. If we succeed, patients who have lived with chronic cough for years — often cycling through treatments that do not work — would have a durable, effective option that does not compromise normal sensation or carry the systemic side effects common to oral therapies. That kind of relief has not existed for this patient population, and it is why we do this work.
The Science & The Strategy
Q3. What sets Nocion’s approach apart from others working in chronic cough?
Most of the major clinical programs in chronic cough are orally delivered drugs that target only a subset of the cough pathways involved and carry significant side effects as a result of systemic exposure. Our approach is fundamentally different: we treat the disease where it occurs. Taplucainium, our lead compound, is administered via a dry powder inhaler and stays local in the lung, rather than entering systemic circulation or crossing the blood–brain barrier. That localized delivery is not just a cleaner pharmacological story — it is a more logical way to treat the disease.
The mechanism is equally distinctive. Taplucainium is a charged sodium channel blocker that gains access to pulmonary sensory nerves through large pore ion channels that open specifically during irritation or inflammation. Once inside these activated nerves, it inhibits the sodium channels driving the pathological cough response — selectively quieting the nerves that are causing the problem while leaving normal sensation intact. Because the mechanism works across multiple large pore channels, including TRPV and TRPA in addition to P2X3, we have the potential to treat a broader range of cough types than programs targeting a single receptor. We administer it once daily, it has a long duration of effect, and we anticipate a clean safety profile. To me, that combination represents a fundamentally more compelling approach than what is currently leading the field.
Q4. What has been your most important milestone to date, and what is next?
Our first major milestone was completing the Phase 2a study of taplucainium, which was no small feat given that it ran during the pandemic — a period that, ironically, made the unmet need even more visible. Chronic cough patients were already accustomed to the unwanted attention their condition draws; during COVID, that became acutely painful in new ways, and it reinforced for us why this work matters.
Since that first study, we have run several additional trials, and we are now approaching the completion of the ASPIRE Phase 2b trial — our first global study, which is a significant milestone for a company of our size. We expect a data readout later this year. That result will be the foundation for everything that comes next: Phase 3 planning, capital formation, and potential strategic partnerships with larger commercial-stage companies. It is a pivotal moment for Nocion.
Q5. What is the pipeline opportunity beyond chronic cough?
The biology underlying our platform — the selective silencing of overactive sensory neurons — extends well beyond cough. We have demonstrated preclinical effects across a range of indications, including dermatological conditions such as atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, and prurigo; gastrointestinal conditions including ulcerative colitis, IBS, and rectal itch; women’s health indications including vulvodynia and endometriosis; and other pain indications such as diabetic neuropathy and post-operative pain.
There is also a finding I find particularly compelling: in some preclinical models, silencing local sensory nerves appears to reverse the disease state rather than simply managing symptoms. If that holds in the clinic, it opens the possibility of curative therapies, not just palliative ones. That is a genuinely exciting prospect. For now, we remain laser focused on advancing taplucainium in chronic cough — but the platform has a scope well beyond it.
Leadership & Ecosystem
Q6. How would you describe the culture you are building at Nocion?
We have intentionally built a lean team — people with deep experience in development and commercialization, but also a lot of grit. The ability to move fast, make decisions based on honest data, and pivot when the science demands it is not optional for a company at our stage. Our goal is simple: do not waste anyone’s time — not investors’, not patients’, not our own — on an idea, strategy, or molecule that is not working. We want to know as quickly as possible whether we are moving in the right direction.
Underlying all of that is a commitment to ego-free decision-making. We are here to serve patients, and that has to be the organizing principle. Smart, objective, research-driven decisions — not attachment to any particular outcome. A lean team can only function that way if everyone trusts each other and trusts the process, and I think we have built that.
Q7. What has surprised you most about being a CEO in life sciences?
The opportunity to go deep into such specific, niche corners of clinical science has been a genuine pleasure. Coming from an academic background, where the environment tends to be more structured and deliberate, I have loved working with dynamic teams that are motivated by questions the industry has not been asking — or has not yet thought to ask.
The other thing that has stayed with me is how personal the connection to this work becomes. Regularly, when I describe what Nocion does, someone tells me they have chronic cough, or that a family member does. That happens far more often than you would expect, and every time it does, it reinforces why we are here. The disease is invisible in a lot of ways — people manage around it quietly — and yet it is everywhere once you start looking.
Looking Ahead
Q8. Where do you see Nocion in three years?
The immediate priority is strong Phase 2b data from ASPIRE. Everything else flows from that. Based on those results, we intend to scale the company to conduct Phase 3 studies of taplucainium in chronic cough, and we are already planning the capital formation to support that work. We may also have the opportunity to build strategic partnerships with larger commercial-stage companies who see the value of what we are building.
We have stayed deliberately lean through this phase so that we can remain nimble — ready to grow when the data supports it and ready to adjust if it demands something different. In three years, I hope to see taplucainium completing Phase 3 trials and Nocion recognized as having established a genuinely new standard of care for a patient population that has been waiting a very long time.
Q9. What is one thing about the life sciences industry you would change — and what gives you optimism?
I wish the industry were more transparent about the cost of failure — both financially and scientifically. It is natural not to want to dwell on what did not work, but it is precisely what we learn from failure that allows the field to advance. The opacity around it is costly: it leads to repeated mistakes, misallocated capital, and a public perception that drug development is more mysterious than it needs to be. Honest, open conversations about what failed and why would make the whole ecosystem more efficient.
What gives me optimism is the enduring power of good science. As long as we stay anchored in core scientific fundamentals and keep listening carefully to what patients actually experience and need, we will continue to find paths forward. The biology does not lie, and the unmet need does not go away. Those two things together are a reliable source of momentum, regardless of what the funding environment or the political climate is doing around us
About The Big4Bio CEO Weekly Q&A
Every Monday, Big4Bio spotlights a life sciences CEO from one of our eight coverage regions — Boston, San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego, Philadelphia, New York City, the Capital Region, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Each feature is promoted across all eight Big4Bio daily newsletters, reaching 30,000+ life sciences professionals. CEO participation is complimentary and editorial — every CEO approves the final Q&A before publication.
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