Philadelphia Business Journal - by John George , Staff Writer -- Adolor Corp. and Pfizer Inc. said Tuesday they have decided to discontinue further development of two compounds Adolor discovered that were being developed as potential pain treatments.
The two companies were developing ADL-5859 and ADL-5747, new drug candidates known as delta opioid receptor agonist compounds, under a license and collaboration agreement signed in December 2007.
Under that partnership, Adolor (NASDAQ:ADLR) of Exton, Pa., received an upfront payment of $30 million from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and the potential to receive up to $232.5 million in milestone payments from Pfizer had the compounds been successfully developed.
Adolor officials said clinical evaluations in multiple indications, including in a recently concluded study in post-herpetic neuralgia patients, had not yielded "compelling evidence" to continue the development program.
Pfizer has delivered to the company a notice of termination of the agreement, which will be effective as of March 2011.
