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news.Merck & Co has commenced phase I clinical trials of NGD-8243, a drug candidate for the treatment of pain. The compound is one of several drug candidates being developed as the result of the company's collaboration with Neurogen Corporation.
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The initiation of phase I studies triggers a milestone payment of $2 million from Merck to Neurogen.
The phase I clinical trial being conducted by Merck in Europe is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled evaluation of the safety and pharmacokinetics of single ascending oral doses of NGD-8243 in healthy volunteers.
“Drugs acting on this target have the potential to not only alleviate pain, particularly arising from inflammatory states, but also to treat urinary incontinence and upper airway disease making this a particularly exciting area of new drug discovery,” said Dr William Koster, president and CEO of Neurogen.
This collaboration between the two companies to develop and commercialize next-generation drugs for the treatment of pain and other disorders commenced in January 2004.
The partnership enabled Merck and Neurogen to pool drug candidates targeting the type 1 vanilloid receptor (VR1), a key integrator of pain signals in the nervous system, and combine their ongoing VR1 programs.
Merck paid a $15 million license fee and purchased $15 million in Neurogen stock when the collaboration was consummated. Merck also provides ongoing research funding and license maintenance payments and Neurogen is eligible to receive milestone payments and royalties upon the successful development and commercialization of drug candidates.