Array BioPharma links with Asahi Kasei on TrkA inhibitors

USA-based Array BioPharm (Nasdaq: ARRY) and Japan’s Asahi Kasei Pharma Corp (TYO: 3407) have entered a strategic collaboration to develop and commercialize select Tropomyosin receptor kinase A (TrkA) inhibitors, including Array-invented ARRY-954, for pain, inflammation and other non-cancer indications.

Array retains the right for all compounds for all indications outside of Asia. Within Asia, Array retains the right to cancer indications for all compounds, excluding those compounds being developed by Asahi Kasei Pharma, including ARRY-954. The news lifted Array’s stock price by 4.81% to $3.05 per share.

ARRY-954 is a potent, orally available, small molecule inhibitor of TrkA. Owing to its allosteric mechanism of TrkA inhibition, ARRY-954 achieves very high levels of selectivity over other members of the Trk kinase family as well as other off-target kinases. In preclinical studies, ARRY-954 has demonstrated inhibition of peripheral pain responses in a variety of in vivo models representing difficult to treat human pain conditions.