Bristol-Myers Squibb Company / Allergan, Inc. (EHT/AGN 0001 license)

Neuropathic Pain

$3.0B US neuropathic pain market 2025 · ~50% Of diabetic patients develop diabetic peripheral neuropathy

Disease Overview

Neuropathic pain is chronic pain arising from somatosensory nervous system injury or disease, including diabetic peripheral neuropathy, post-herpetic neuralgia, chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, and post-surgical neuropathies. It is hard to treat because existing therapies (gabapentinoids, SNRIs, tricyclics, topical lidocaine) provide only partial relief in roughly half of patients and carry meaningful CNS side effects.

Competitive Landscape

When BMS in-licensed AGN-209323 from Allergan in March 2010, the neuropathic pain category was dominated by Pfizer's Lyrica (pregabalin), Pfizer's Neurontin (gabapentin, then generic), Lilly's Cymbalta (duloxetine, going generic in 2013), and topical lidocaine patches. The unmet need remained substantial because none of the standard agents combined high efficacy with a clean tolerability profile, and most carried somnolence or dizziness limitations. AGN-209323 — discovered originally by ExonHit Therapeutics (later Diaxonhit) and out-licensed to Allergan, then sublicensed to BMS — was a Phase II-ready oral small molecule with a mechanism that BMS did not publicly disclose at the deal stage. The $40M upfront plus $373M in milestones represented modest near-term cost with substantial back-loaded optionality. In February 2013 BMS terminated development of EHT/AGN 0001 and returned the program to Allergan without disclosing the reason, and the program never reached commercialization. The category has since seen NGF inhibitors (tanezumab, fasinumab — both stalled on safety) and Vertex's NaV1.8 inhibitor suzetrigine (Journavx, approved 2025) as more-recent disruptors.