VentureWire
Solace Raises $15M For New Pain Treatments
May 1, 2007 (no link available)

Brian Gormley

Solace Pharmaceuticals Inc., a new company formed to develop novel treatments for chronic and acute pain, has raised a $15 million first round co-led by Polaris Venture Partners and InterWest Partners.

Solace, based in Boston, will use this funding to advance its lead drug into Phase II testing for chronic pain, according to Chief Executive Eliot Forster, a former executive with Pfizer Inc. who oversaw drug development activities in Europe and established the company's development activities in Asia. Solace also expects to begin testing an earlier-stage drug candidate in clinical trials in about 12 to 18 months, he said.

The company isn't disclosing how its lead drug candidate stops pain, but Forster said that this new funding would enable Solace to complete Phase II trials on its own if needed. Solace's valuation is undisclosed.

Solace, which was created in March of 2006 by PureTech Ventures, a Boston firm that launches life sciences start-ups, and a group of pain researchers, including Allan Basbaum, a professor at the University of California at San Francisco; and Clifford Woolf, a professor at Harvard Medical School. PureTech, which provided an undisclosed amount of seed funding, launched the company to bring innovation to a field that is badly in need of it, said Managing Partner Daphne Zohar. According to the company, some 40 million Americans suffer from chronic pain, and many aren't helped by existing drugs.

Until recently, the biological mechanisms underlying pain have been poorly understood, said Forster. But in recent years, scientists have gained greater understanding of the genetic components that control tolerance to pain. They have found, for example, that a gene called GCH1, which controls levels of enzyme called BH4, plays a role in how much pain a person feels. Solace's earlier-stage drug candidate targets the BH4 enzyme to relieve pain, according to Forster.

The problems associated with Vioxx, the Merck & Co. painkiller that was pulled from the market in 2004 because of cardiovascular problems associated with the drug, illustrate how challenging the pain field can be. But the demise of Vioxx has also created a void that companies such as Solace could fill, said Chris Ehrlich a partner of InterWest.

In addition, Polaris Managing General Partner Terry McGuire said the firm feels that Solace's pain drugs are unlikely to encounter similar problems as Vioxx because they work through much different mechanisms.