Alex Smith on Locked On Chiefs
Oxeia board member and former NFL quarterback Alex Smith joined NFL analyst Ryan Tracy on Locked On Chiefs to talk about why the treatment for concussion has not changed in a century, why the problem reaches far past football, and the work Oxeia is doing to bring the first FDA-approved drug for concussion to market. In 2026, there is still not a single one.
On how little has changed:
"As much as we've tried to make the game safer, we've seen kickoff rule changes, we've seen helmets get better. The fact is, the treatment today is the same treatment as it was a hundred years ago, a thousand years ago. There are no treatments for concussion, and I think that's a problem."
On what patients are given instead:
"Some treatment would be nice, other than resting up and the old cliches of going and sitting in a dark room. Not a ton has changed. There are no FDA-approved treatments for concussion, and hopefully that changes here in the near future."
On why this reaches past football:
"I know we're talking here with football, but they're a part of everybody's life. I can't tell you how many times a parent comes up to me asking me something that their child got a concussion doing, and what can they do. In the short term, in the long term, what can we do?"
On why he joined Oxeia:
"Why I'm here today is my partnership with Oxeia Biopharmaceuticals, and trying to find a solution. We really feel like we're onto something, and trying to be a part of the solution to change that."
On Oxeia's progress so far:
"We have a naturally occurring synthetic hormone that we think is very promising. It's already gone through initial Phase 2 trials, which had really promising indications. Obviously there's all these protocols through the FDA in order to get something cleared, but it's something that we're excited about and pursuing."
The hormone Smith is describing is ghrelin. OXE103 is based on ghrelin, a naturally occurring hormone produced in the body that Dr. Vishal Bansal's UCSD lab found to have remarkable effects on preventing brain injury. In a Phase 2a study run out of the University of Kansas Medical Center, OXE103 produced an almost 85% responder rate in patients with persistent concussion symptoms compared to those who didn't receive the drug.
Oxeia is now fundraising on StartEngine for Phase 2b: a 160-patient, multi-site, randomized, placebo-controlled trial planned to begin later this year, on the path to what could be the first FDA-approved drug for concussion. Former NFL quarterback Alex Smith sits on Oxeia's board.
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