Xenon and Genentech establish new pain discovery collaboration

Privately-held US biotech firm Xenon Pharmaceuticals has established a new collaboration with Swiss drug major Roche’s (ROG: SIX) subsidiary Genentech for pain genetics, with the goal of discovering and validating new therapeutic targets and mechanisms for treating pain.

The collaboration, financial terms of which were not disclosed, leverages Xenon's Extreme Genetics discovery platform to focus on rare phenotypes where individuals have an inability to perceive pain or where individuals have non-precipitated spontaneous severe pain. This new collaboration agreement builds on the strategic alliance established between Xenon and Genentech in 2012 for the discovery and development of compounds and companion diagnostics for the potential treatment of pain.

Under the terms of the new accord, both Xenon and Genentech will own the intellectual property arising out of the collaboration. Xenon has also granted Genentech a time-limited, exclusive right of negotiation on a target-by-target basis to form joint drug discovery collaborations.