Selecting for pain

Neuropathic pain is difficult to both diagnose and treat, as current first-line therapies such as anticonvulsants and antidepressants mostly have been discovered serendipitously, provide only partial relief and are limited by side effects. Consequently, there is an intense research effort to identify novel molecular targets, among them being sodium channels, which are involved in transmitting pain signals to the central nervous system.

Last week, GlaxoSmithKline plc (LSE: GSK; GSK, London, U.K.), which already has a drug believed to work via sodium ion channel modulation, placed another chip on this mechanism by agreeing to pay $20 million up front for preclinical selective sodium channel blockers from Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX, Cambridge, Mass.). ...