Lilly to Acquire Non-Opioid Pain Asset from Centrexion

On May 28, 2019, Eli Lilly announced a license agreement to acquire the exclusive worldwide rights for CNTX-0290, a small-molecule somatostatin receptor type 4 (SSTR4) agonist that is currently being studied in Phase I clinical testing as a potential non-opioid treatment for chronic pain conditions, from Centrexion Therapeutics, a company focused on developing non-opioid, non-addictive therapeutics for the treatment of chronic pain.

Under the terms of the agreement, Lilly will pay Centrexion an upfront payment of $47.5 million, and Centrexion may be eligible for up to $575 million in potential development and regulatory milestones. If CNTX-0290 is successfully commercialized, Centrexion would be eligible for up to $375 million in potential sales milestones and tiered royalties ranging from the high-single to low-double digits. Lilly and Centrexion may also elect at a later date to co-promote CNTX-0290 in the United States.

"This collaboration marks an important step for Centrexion in the progress of its pipeline and demonstrates our ability to identify promising early stage assets working at new targets for chronic pain and efficiently take them through to development," said Jeffrey B. Kindler, CEO at Centrexion, in a company press release. "Lilly's robust pain management portfolio and successful track record developing and commercializing novel therapies make them an ideal company to advance CNTX-0290.  Importantly, this agreement aims to efficiently deliver an innovative new treatment to patients that can address the significant unmet medical need of chronic pain."