Monash pain research nets UK licensing deal

A new approach to treating pain has been licensed to British company RiboTargets by Monash University in a deal brokered by Victorian technology commercialisation company Biocomm.

The licence gives RiboTargets the rights to develop and market a new class of compounds called neurosteroids, which appear to have broad applicability for pain relief. The initial use will be for relief of cancer-associated pain and Phase I clinical trials are expected to start early next year. Financial details of the deal were not released.

The neurosteroids, including lead compound alphadolone, were discovered and characterised by Monash Department of Anaesthesia head Prof Colin Goodchild and his team.

Goodchild said he had spent many years researching the effects of anaesthetics on the GABA receptor system on the nervous system, particularly the spinal column. He explained that while GABA-receptor targeting anaesthetics such as midazolam caused loss of consciousness when injected into the bloodstream, if injected directly into the spinal column they could effectively alleviate pain.

While direct injection into the spinal column is not a practical option for ongoing pain relief, Goodchild said that the team had discovered that certain neurosteroids were also able to provide pain relief without sedation when given orally.

According to Goodchild, the researchers have performed extensive pre-clinical animal studies on alphadolone and the other neurosteroids, demonstrating effective pain relief in animal models used to for pain-related studies. In addition, the compounds enhance the analgesic effect of morphine and have shown that they can be used for both neuropathic pain and other forms of pain, including post-operative and cancer-related pain.

"The indications from our work are that it has a wide range of applicability," he said. RiboTargets will initially target the cancer pain market, as a complementary product to its existing anti-cancer therapeutic development.

Goodchild said that while RiboTargets would be responsible for further development of the compound, he would provide advice on the drug and would also continue to work on second-generation neurosteroid-based analgesics.

RiboTargets was chosen to take the development of the project into the clinic after Biocomm conducted a search for suitable partners, said Goodchild. He said that although RiboTargets' existing portfolio was mostly focused on drug discovery for anti-cancer therapeutics and antibiotics, they felt that the project was a good fit.