MUMBAI - Glenmark Pharmaceuticals suffered a major blow to its drug discovery plans as Eli Lilly, its research partner for the development of pain management compound GRC 6211 suspended further clinical development on the experimental drug.

In May 2007, Glenmark completed Phase I clinical trials for the vanilloid receptor antagonist GRC 6211 in Europe for a range of pain indications like neuropathic pain, osteoarthritis and urinary incontinence. Lilly was to develop the drug from Phase IIa onwards.

Speaking to PharmAsia News, Glenmark CEO Glenn Saldanha said, "We are working out ways on how to take the drug forward. Glenmark and Eli Lilly have a broad based agreement on a large spectrum of [transient receptor potential vanilloid sub-family 1] TRPV1 compounds and we will see which of the backup compounds can be explored for further research."

According to sources from research circles, Eli Lilly may not have found the clinical data for initial stages of Phase II satisfactory, which may have prompted them to drop the compound. By agreement between the two companies announced Oct. 30, 2007, Glenmark received an upfront fee of $45 million and could have received up to an additional $215 million in potential development and sales milestones for the initial indication (Also see "Lilly Acquires Rights To TRPV-1 Receptor Antagonists From Glenmark" - Scrip, 31 October, 2007.).

Had the drug reached the market, Glenmark was to get royalties on sales of GRC 6211. If other indications are successfully developed, Glenmark could be entitled to additional milestones up to $90 million. Lilly retains the marketing rights for North America, Europe and Japan, while Glenmark holds the marketing rights in all other countries.

Recently, Glenn Saldanha outlined that the company has bulked up its clinical research pipeline with 13 compounds in various stages of development (Also see "Glenmark Sets Up Clinical R&D Unit At Oxford As Drug Pipeline Swells" - Scrip, 21 October, 2008.).

- Vikas Dandekar (v.dandekar@elsevier.com)

Lilly Halts Development of Glenmark’s TRVP-1 Receptor Antagonist

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