Merck partners with King’s College to develop non-opioid pain therapies

Merck has partnered with King's College London to translate research elucidating HCN2 as a pain target to develop non-opioid treatments for chronic neuropathic pain.

The deal builds on work from the lab of Peter McNaughton at King's College, which showed that inhibiting hyperpolarization activated cyclic nucleotide-gated potassium channel 2 (HCN2) can reduce pain in animal models without the side effects of opioids. McNaughton's lab has received £4.5 million ($6 million) in funding from Wellcome Trust...