BioWorld International Correspondent

MUNICH, Germany - Ingenium Pharmaceuticals AG entered a partnership with Elan Corp. plc to develop novel treatments for pain management. The companies will jointly fund a four-year research program, estimated at $10 million in total, which they believe will identify clinical candidates.

"The goal of the program is to find novel mechanisms for treating neuropathic pain," Michael Nehls, CEO of Munich-based Ingenium, told BioWorld International. "We are undertaking a biological discovery program using genetic tools.

"It's known that a couple of genes play a specific role in the development and treatment of neuropathic pain," Nehls added. "This is really just the beginning. We can now essentially address how genes address pain."

Lars Ekman, Elan's president of research and development, told BioWorld International that "Ingenium's technology gives us the opportunity to go from operation at the gene level to the functional aspect faster than with just about any other technology." Through its cooperation with Ingenium, Elan hopes to couple gene-level actions with functional actions at what Ekman called "a very productive rate."

Ekman added that Elan, of Dublin, Ireland, was impressed with Ingenium's "deductive genomics" technology, a means of rapidly screening targets against a vast library of genetic variants. Ingenium's approaches also allow it to produce mammalian models of mutations from its library within three months. (See BioWorld International, Feb. 12, 2003.)

Nehls said, "Combining know-how is why we did this. The specific knowledge about pain management comes from Elan, where they are a leader in the field."

The deal offers considerable upside for Ingenium. Elan will pay milestones of up to $50 million per product. "Naturally, we hope that there will be more than one product," Nehls said. The company also has the option of jointly developing and commercializing with Elan any compounds discovered through the partnership. Returns from such an agreement would be over and above royalties. Both companies were optimistic about those possibilities, while acknowledging that their potential impact was several years down the road.

Ekman said that the partnership adds to Elan's potential in a key area. "The partnership is an integrated part of our ability to be a long-term competitor in the pain area. There have been relatively few targets emerging over the last few years. We need a new family of targets, and we think that Ingenium is well positioned to provide them."

For Elan, Ekman said, the sum of money invested is relatively modest, but the scope of the company's commitment went beyond cash. "This is not just a contract for targets, but Elan will add substantial internal resources as well."

"We know that novel biology in pain management could have therapeutic value," Nehls said. "Based on what we have created over the last three years, we feel strongly about our ability to find novel biologies."

Founded in late 1998, Ingenium grew out of the ENU-mutagenesis and phenotyping program of the German Human Genome Project. Since operations began in the summer of 1999, Ingenium has worked in functional genomics and established its deductive genomics platform, in combination with a set of technologies to locate high-probability therapeutic approaches. In its second round of financing, completed in 2000, Ingenium raised more than $50 million, the largest private fund-raising in the German biotechnology industry at that time.