Eurand in-licences novel analgesics

Italian speciality pharmaceutical company Eurand has signed research agreements with the technology transfer offices of the Universities of Milan and Sassari, both in Italy, to evaluate a new class of analgesic compounds.

This new class of compounds is expected to be comparable to opioids in terms of efficacy, but without the major drawbacks of tolerance and dependence which limit the use of opioids.

Under the terms of the agreement Eurand and the universities will collaborate to develop and evaluate the efficacy of five novel compounds for the treatment of moderate to severe pain. The universities, which discovered the compounds, will be responsible for their synthesis, while Eurand will be responsible for the pre-clinical evaluation and development of the products and will use its proprietary drug delivery technologies to optimise the release profiles of the drugs. Eurand has an option for exclusive worldwide development and commercialisation rights.

'Eurand is looking forward to working with the Universities of Milan and Sassari for the development of this new class of compounds,' said Eurand ceo Gearoid Faherty. 'In-licensing of select molecules forms a core element of our internal product development strategy and this is the third such agreement signed by Eurand. We are in active discussions with a number of academic research organisations to establish research and development collaborations such as the one with these leading European institutions.'