US-based development-stage biopharmaceutical firm Sorrento Therapeutics has acquired Sherrington Pharmaceuticals (Sherrington), a company that provides chronic pain treatment for end-stage cancer patients and other severe pain indications.
The drug candidate of Sherrington, which is called Resiniferatoxin, is a non-opiate, ultra potent and selective agonist of the transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily V member 1 (TRPV-1) receptor.
According to the company, a single injection of the drug would permanently block the transmission of pain signals without impairing the mental or physical faculties of the patient, common side effects of opiate treatment.
The drug is currently in an investigator-sponsored Phase I/II study at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under a company sponsored Collaborative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA).
In order to help accelerate the development of the drug, Sorrento intends to start additional clinical studies.
Sorrento president and chief executive officer Henry Ji said the company's drug development pipeline now has additional clinical stage programs to go along with its late stage program Cynviloq and pipeline of fully human therapeutic antibodies.
"Resiniferatoxin is a great fit with our mission to treat cancer patients with targeted and selective treatments," Ji added.
"End-stage cancer pain is a particularly high unmet medical need and the early data with Resiniferatoxin are very encouraging."
Sorrento is engaged in the acquisition, discovery, development and commercialization of proprietary drug therapeutics to address significant unmet medical needs in the US, Europe and additional international markets.
