Newron and Zambon group to collaborate on pain treatments

Italian companies Newron Pharmaceuticals and Zambon Group have signed a collaboration and license agreement aimed at discovering, developing and commercialising novel compounds active as sodium and calcium channel blockers for the treatment of pain conditions.

Newron's contribution to the collaboration is based on its wide experience in the area of ion channels and will include the licensing of selected Newron proprietary structures to Zambon Group. Zambon Group will contribute to the joint project with a strong involvement of its research facilities located in Switzerland dedicated to drug discovery. The collaboration will take advantage of Zambon Group's expertise in lead optimisation and in all phases of pharmaceutical development.

The two companies will jointly fund and collaborate in the whole r&d programme, including preclinical and clinical studies by pooling resources and expertise, with the aim of accelerating product development. The parties will act via a joint steering committee aimed at coordinating all development and commercial activities.

Newron will receive from Zambon Group a signifi-cant milestone payment upon first candidate drug selection. Newron and Zambon Group will share equally all revenues deriving from future commercial exploittion of compounds originating from the agreement. Newron will also receive royalties on Zambon Group in-market sales in selected countries. As part of the agreement, Zambon Group will retain exclusive marketing rights for certain countries.

'This collaboration highlights the value of Newron's proprietary compounds and expertise in targeting the modulation of ion channels, a core area for Newron discovery research with strong validation in several diseases of the nervous system,' said Patricia Salvati, Newron Pharmaceuticals' vp of discovery.

Besides the two programmes that are part of the collaboration with Zambon Group, Newron is pursuing other significant discovery projects in the CNS area and has initiated Phase II trials with ralfinamide (NW-1029), a potent sodium channel blocker that was discovered in-house for neuropathic pain.