Eli Lilly is expanding its efforts to advance next-generation pain medications. The Big Pharma has penned a deal to acquire SiteOne Therapeutics, primarily for a non-opioid pain asset ready to enter phase 2 trials.
Collectively, SiteOne shareholders could receive as much as $1 billion from the deal, Lilly said in a May 27 release, which includes an upfront payment, plus additional biobucks tied to certain milestones.
Lilly’s sights are set on STC-004, a sodium channel inhibitor made to block NaV1.8, an ion channel primarily found in the peripheral nervous system and involved in pain sensation.
"The global burden of chronic pain continues to increase and an effective non-opioid treatment remains elusive," Mark Mintun, M.D., Lilly’s vice president of neuroscience R&D, said in the release. "Lilly is eager to continue the development of STC-004 with the outstanding SiteOne team as part of our efforts to advance novel, addiction-free pain therapies.”
SiteOne recently tested out STC-004 in a phase 1 trial, finding that a once-daily dose of the drug candidate was well-absorbed and well-tolerated, while also improving pain tolerance, according to a Feb. 4 release.
The Bay Area biotech closed a $100 million series C fundraise led by Novo Holdings at the end of last year, with a goal of using the money to advance an early pipeline of pain candidates. In addition to NaV1.8, the company is also exploring other ion channel modulators, such as NaV1.7.
Other NaV1.8 inhibitors have hit bumps in the road to replacing opioids. Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a biopharma long on the hunt for non-opioid pain relievers, dropped a pair of NaV1.8-targeting assets back in 2020, and then years later revealed a different inhibitor beat placebo at relieving pain in two phase 3 trials but failed to best the opioid Vicodin.
Lilly previously entered a next-gen pain partnership with Pfizer, teaming up with the fellow pharma giant to develop nerve growth factor inhibitor tanezumab. However, the partners ultimately dumped tanezumab after regulators from the FDA and European Medicines Agency rejected it. The candidate had shown the ability to reduce pain in patients with osteoarthritis, but faced concerns over a link to joint damage.