Collaboration to Develop Pain Medications

A worldwide alliance to research, develop, and commercialize novel small molecule medicines that target a key integrator of pain signals has been announced by Merck & Co., Inc. (Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA) and Neurogen Corp. (Branford, CT, USA).

The integrator of pain signals, called the vanilloid receptor (VR1), also plays a role in other disorders, such as urinary incontinence. The alliance enables a subsidiary of Merck and Neurogen to pool the VR1 drug candidates they previously discovered and combine their ongoing programs. Merck will fund the research and development and will have the exclusive responsibility for the commercialization of collaboration drugs. The goal is to rapidly provide patients with better medicines for pain and for disease states in which VR1 has been implicated.

Neurogen targets new small molecule drugs to improve the lives of patients suffering from disorders with significant unmet need, such as inflammation, pain, insomnia, depression, and obesity. The company has generated a portfolio of new drug candidates through its accelerated intelligent drug discovery (AIDD) system and its experience in cellular functional assays and medicinal chemistry.

"Neurogen and Merck have each established preeminent positions in this important new area of drug discovery,” said William H. Koster, Ph.D., president and CEO of Neurogen. "Combining our efforts and drawing on the strength of Merck's clinical and commercial expertise will enable us to more rapidly bring new VR1 drugs forward.”




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