Pharmaprojects R&D Pipeline News Feed
Adolor and Pfizer join forces on novel pain compounds
7 Dec 2007
Pfizer has signed a deal with Adolor securing exclusive worldwide rights to two novel compounds for pain. The deal grants Pfizer access to Adolor's ADL-5859 and ADL-5747, both proprietary delta opioid receptor agonists with potential application in a wide range of inflammatory, neuropathic and acute pain conditions.
There are three known opioid receptors - mu, kappa and delta. All current opioid analgesics exert their effect mainly on the mu variant, with no presently-approved compounds targeted specifically at the kappa or delta types. Preclinical work suggests that delta-specific agonists may exhibit superior analgesic properties to mu agonists whilst avoiding some of their common and undesirable side-effects.
ADL-5859 is the most advanced compound, currently in Phase IIa trials in inflammatory pain, with more Phase II trials planned for 2008. An IND for ADL-5747 is pending and Adolor is planning to initiate clinical development in the first quarter of 2008.
