Stamford-based Purdue Pharma L.P. and California-based AnaBios Corp. said recently they intend to form a venture aimed at accelerating the development of Purdue Pharma”™s nonopioid “Nav1.7 sodium ion channel compounds” for the treatment of pain.
According to a statement from Purdue Pharma, the joint research-and-development effort will combine Purdue Pharma”™s intellectual property and lead compounds, plus its “historic and extensive pain drug development expertise,” with AnaBios”™ so-called Phase-X technology, which bypasses animal experimentation to study novel drugs directly in human tissues.
According to Purdue Pharma, the venture represents “the latest step in our efforts to diversify beyond opioid-based treatments through strategic acquisitions and unique partnerships.”
Purdue Pharma reported it has more than 10 years of research history in the sodium channel field. Those efforts have led to multiple patent applications and what the company called “numerous lead compounds targeting Nav1.7 as well as other sodium channel isoforms that are potentially useful for the treatment of chronic pain.”
Purdue Pharma has extensive clinical development experience with drugs for treating pain. It is the maker of OxyContin, its brand name for the painkiller oxycodone.
“AnaBios generates highly valuable and predictive human data that ensure the selection of the most effective and safest drugs before investing in expensive and time-consuming clinical trials,” Purdue Pharma officials said. The company called the AnaBios method “a unique and unprecedented capability for studying the human peripheral pain pathway in the laboratory.”
“The prospect of combining AnaBios”™ unique platform and Purdue Pharma”™s top quality chemistry exemplifies the powerful nexus of technology-based discovery and industry collaboration,” Mark Timney, president and CEO of Purdue Pharma, said. “This creative partnership fits in well with our strategic plan to continue development of our existing therapeutic programs and ultimately bring value to patients suffering from pain and to healthcare providers.”
The company said this is its third business development-themed announcement in the last month.
“We are very excited to have the opportunity to employ AnaBios”™ Phase-X technology to optimize the selection of clinical candidates from the advanced leads Purdue Pharma has generated,” AnaBios CEO Andre Ghetti said. “Employing human sensory neurons to match the selectivity and properties of sodium channel blockers with specific pain indications, we will maximize the potential success of clinical development of much needed new pain therapeutics.”
