Drugmaker Led by Ex-CEOs of Pfizer, Celgene Buys Three Painkillers
March 30 2016 - 11:18AM
Dow Jones News
By Anne Steele
Pain treatment maker Centrexion Therapeutics, founded by former
chief executives at Pfizer Inc. and Celgen Corp., agreed to acquire
three new painkilling candidates from Germany's Boehringer
Ingelheim GmbH in a bid to expand its proprietary pipeline.
Financial terms weren't disclosed in the deal for nonopioid and
nonsurgical chronic pain treatments.
Centrexion, which started in late 2013, is led by former Celgene
Corp. Chief Executive Sol Barer, who chairs the company's board,
and former Pfizer Chief Executive Jeffrey Kindler, who serves as
the company's chief executive officer. The Baltimore-based company
has raised $58 million to date.
The biopharmaceutical company studies its therapies in companion
animals with the same naturally-occurring pain-causing disease
conditions as humans, and works on parallel tracks to develop human
and veterinary treatments.
Mr. Kindler said Centrexion was created out of "the tremendous
need for safe, non-habit-forming and effective treatments for
chronic pain" and that the acquisition of three of Boehringer
Ingelheim's "most promising pain treatment candidates strengthens
our existing proprietary pipeline."
The deal comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is
pushing the industry to develop pain medicines that are more
difficult or less rewarding to abuse.
Mr. Kindler led Pfizer during some of the company's most
difficult times, including its $68 billion takeover of rival Wyeth
and the company losing patent protection for its top-selling drug,
Lipitor. He retired in 2010 at age 55, saying he was worn out after
leading the drugmaker for 4 1/2 years.
Mr. Barer, a former scientist, is recognized for helping to
build Celgene into a drug giant, currently valued at $78 billion.
Mr. Barer, born in a displaced persons camp in Germany following
World War II, was there at Celgene's beginning in 1986 and left as
chief executive in 2010. Over that time, he played a key role in
developing the blood-cancer treatments Thalomid and Revlimid.
Centrexion's proprietary pipeline consists of the first and only
injectable analgesic capsaicin, known as trans-capsaicin, which is
currently being evaluated in clinical trials for the treatment of
pain associated with chronic conditions.
Boehringer Ingelheim, meanwhile, is shifting its focus to key
central nervous system symptom domains across neuropsychiatric
diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia and
depression.
Write to Anne Steele at Anne.Steele@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 30, 2016 11:03 ET (15:03 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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