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Funding: This study was funded by a research grant from Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals Ltd (https://paradigmbiopharma.com/) and from a Project Grant awarded to GJA from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) (Project ID1106029). CJMS was supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship. GJA is an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow. Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals Ltd provided additional funding in the form of salary to RK. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section. The funders did not have any role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript beyond those specified.

Competing interests: RK is a full-time employee of Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. (https://paradigmbiopharma.com/). As a staff member of Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals Ltd, RK is entitled to long term and short-term incentives. Australian Provisional Patent Application 2018903820 and Australian Provisional Patent Application 2019900326 which are both entitled “Treatment of pain with polysulfated polysaccharides” have been filed by Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals Ltd who is the proprietor of the intellectual property. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. All other authors declare that no competing interests exist.