BioXcel and Centrexion Therapeutics Further Advance Big Data Innovation Lab Collaboration in Chronic Pain

BRANFORD, Conn., Oct. 19, 2016 -- BioXcel Corporation, a privately held biopharmaceutical company pioneering the integration of big data analytics and machine learning-based artificial intelligence (AI) with drug development expertise to advance the next wave of medicines, today announced receipt of its first development milestone payment from Centrexion Therapeutics. Centrexion is focused on advancing the treatment of moderate to severe chronic pain with one of the largest exclusively pain-focused pipelines of non-opioid therapies in active development.  BioXcel’s Big Data Innovation Lab (BDI-Lab) generated product development blueprints for three novel small molecule pain drugs in Centrexion’s pipeline.  The treatment of moderate to severe chronic pain represents a large market with several areas of unmet need for non-opioid alternatives. In less than 12 months, BioXcel’s big data analytics approach enabled the development of target product profiles for specific drug candidates across multiple pain-related indications.

Under the collaboration, Centrexion is utilizing BioXcel’s proprietary BDI-Lab to generate optimal therapeutic value by deciphering the association of drug, disease, mechanism of action, and network-based pharmacology to further advance Centrexion’s non-opioid pain pipeline.  Centrexion’s pursuit of targeted therapies for chronic pain consists of candidates originally acquired from Boehringer Ingelheim. These therapies aim to selectively interrupt pain transmission pathways, thereby addressing a significant need in the market.  

“This partnership has generated excellent results,” said Randall Stevens, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Centrexion Therapeutics. “These product blueprints are an important step in our efforts to develop new, non-opioid therapies for chronic pain and bring novel treatments to patients in need. We look forward to our continued partnership with BioXcel as we work to redefine the clinical development of new pain therapies.”

“The acceptance of these first three product blueprints by Centrexion is an important milestone for BioXcel and a critical validation of the ability of our BDI-Lab to translate clinical hypotheses into human therapies,” added Frank Yocca, Senior Vice President, CNS R&D, BioXcel. “Our BDI-Lab has tremendous potential in neuroscience indications, across a wide range of therapeutic areas that we are currently exploring through our internal pipeline development as well as collaboration agreements with partners in the industry.”

“With our artificial Intelligence and machine learning capabilities, we aim to augment pharma R&D decisions across teams and support the development of better therapies, faster and more efficiently than ever before,” added Dr. Krishnan Nandabalan, President and Chief Scientific Officer of BioXcel.

Centrexion will present further details of the collaboration at the 10^th Annual Arrowhead Pain and Migraine Conference, being held October 19-20, 2016 in Chicago, IL. Dr. Stevens will be hosting a presentation titled The Integration of Artificial and Human Intelligence for Differentiated Pain Therapeutics on October 20 at 9:30am CDT.

About Centrexion Therapeutics
Centrexion Therapeutics, Inc., is focused advancing the treatment of moderate to severe chronic pain with one of the largest exclusively pain-focused, pipelines of non-opioid therapies in active development. Centrexion Therapeutics recognizes the needs of over a quarter of a billion patients living with chronic pain worldwide, and aims to develop new, safer and more effective therapies that overcome the limitations and challenges associated with current pain treatments. Founded by world-renowned leaders in drug development and well-funded by key investors, Centrexion Therapeutics is building a pain treatment powerhouse to address the substantial and growing global chronic pain epidemic.

For more information about Centrexion, visit http://www.centrexion.com.

About BioXcel
BioXcel is a biopharmaceutical company pioneering the integration of big data analytics and machine learning-based artificial intelligence with drug development expertise to advance the next wave of medicines, impacting the probability of success of drugs. Our focus is to develop innovative medicines that address immuno-oncology and neuroscience, and other rare diseases with high unmet medical need.  Committed to innovation, product excellence and partner success, BioXcel's global collaborations span the biopharmaceutical ecosystem.  We are headquartered in Branford, CT, USA with operations in Asia.

For more information about BioXcel, visit http://www.bioxcel.com

Contact Information:
Anita Ganjoo, Ph.D.
Corporate Communications
203 957 2487