Synergy Pharmaceuticals has signed an Asset Purchase Agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb, acquiring the assets of FV-100, an oral nucleoside analogue in development for the treatment of shingles, a severe, painful skin rash caused by reactivation of the chickenpox virus.
 
A completed Phase IIa trial of FV-100 in shingles patients found 200 mg and 400 mg doses of the drug to be well tolerated and clinically meaningful reductions in time to resolution of pain and incidence of post-herpetic neuralgia were noted.
 
“FV-100 is a drug candidate we believe has great potential to treat patients suffering from shingles,” said Dr. Gary S. Jacob, chief executive officer of Synergy Pharmaceuticals. “We believe that with our expanding clinical experience in utilizing patient-reported outcome tools from our GI program, a feature that will be necessary for supporting pain-related indications for FV-100, we are in a unique position to further develop FV-100 for patients not adequately treated with present-day therapy.”