Merck to Enter a Venture for Pain Drugs
By ANDREW POLLACK
Published: March 20, 2006
Merck & Company, stung by the withdrawal of Vioxx from the market, will enter a collaboration to develop new painkilling drugs with Neuromed Pharmaceuticals, a privately held biotechnology company.
In a deal that is expected to be announced today, Merck will pay an initial $25 million to gain the exclusive rights to Neuromed's family of drugs for chronic pain. The most advanced of the drugs, NMED-160, has entered midstage clinical trials.
Merck would pay Neuromed an additional $202 million if NMED-160 wins approval worldwide. If NMED-160 is approved for a second use, and another drug is approved for two uses, payments would reach $450 million.
Janet Skidmore, a spokeswoman for Merck, said the deal was not an attempt to replace Vioxx, which was withdrawn from the market after it was found to raise the risk of heart attacks.
Rather, she said, Merck has identified pain as one of the nine medical treatment areas in which it is focusing. The company already has two other pain drugs in Phase 2 trials, and one in Phase 1.
Neuromed's drugs are made to interfere with the transmission of pain signals by blocking the influx of calcium ions into nerve cells.
"We think these have the potential to become very powerful agents for chronic pain, on the level of morphine," Christopher Gallen, the chief executive of Neuromed, said in an interview.
The first drug that works by that mechanism, Prialt from the Elan Corporation, won Food and Drug Administration approval in December 2004 for use by patients who do not get relief from other analgesics. But because Prialt can cause severe side effects including heart problems and hallucinations, it must be delivered directly into the fluid surrounding the spinal cord by a catheter and implanted pump. Sales in 2005 were only $6.3 million.
NMED-160, by contrast, is taken orally. Dr. Gallen said animal studies suggested the drug did not share Prialt's problems and could have fewer side effects than morphine. But more extensive testing is required, so the drug is not likely to reach the market until early next decade, he said.
Neuromed has offices in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Conshohocken, Pa. |
