Anabios Licenses Sodium Channel Blocking Pain Therapeutic Portfolio from Zalicus

San Diego, California (PRWEB) June 19, 2014

AnaBios Corporation announced today the licensing of a portfolio of novel preclinical, sodium channel blocking pain therapeutics from Zalicus Inc. The agreement is aimed at accelerating the successful development of new selective sodium channel blockers by employing AnaBios’ proprietary Phase X™ technology. Under the terms of the agreement, AnaBios acquires an exclusive license for all development and commercialization rights related to Zalicus’ Nav1.7 portfolio of compounds, having a projected commercial market of at least $1.5B annually. In addition, Zalicus will be eligible for future clinical and regulatory milestone payments from AnaBios and the two companies will share in royalty payments based upon any potential future product sales.

AnaBios will employ its unique and validated Phase X™ preclinical development platform which utilizes viable human tissues to generate human-relevant data at the pre-clinical stage. The use of Phase X™ technology advances lead optimization, clinical candidate selection and de-risking at the pre-clinical stage of development, significantly reducing the chances of failure during clinical testing, thus bringing new therapeutics to market more quickly at substantially lower cost.

“We are extremely excited about the acquisition of Zalicus’ Nav1.7 pain portfolio and the opportunity that this brings to develop much needed non-addictive analgesics. By merging the sophisticated medicinal chemistry work products of Zalicus with the innovative AnaBios’ Phase X™ technology, we have a great opportunity to quickly advance into the clinic new safe and effective drugs for the many patients that cannot find pain relief with existing medications. We feel that our ability to select clinical candidates based on human responses will provide the greatest chance of success,” stated Andre Ghetti, Ph.D., CEO of AnaBios.

“AnaBios, with its proprietary Phase X™ technology platform supporting candidate selection and clinical development, is an ideal partner to advance these novel, oral, selective, state-dependent sodium channel blockers which represent a promising target for chronic pain,“ said Mark H.N. Corrigan, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Zalicus.

About AnaBios: AnaBios Corporation has developed an extensive battery of assays and technologies, Phase X™ that enable the study of ex-vivo human responses to drugs and the investigation of the molecular and functional basis of human physiology. AnaBios focuses primarily on ex-vivo human tissue and cell-based studies for cardiovascular safety, pain and neurodegeneration. AnaBios has a successful track record in employing its Phase X™ platform to support target selection and validation, lead optimization, clinical candidate selection and clinical program de-risking for pharmaceutical drug development programs.

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