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Biopharmaceutical company Icagen (Nasdaq:ICGND) has extended its collaboration and licensing agreement with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) through to December 2011, aimed at discovering, developing and commercializing new potential treatments for pain and related disorders, it said Thursday.

For the past three years, Icagen and Pfizer have been together identifying compounds that target three specific sodium ion channels, which are critical in generating electrical signals in nerve fibers that mediate the initiation, transmission and sensation of pain, as part of a collaboration overseen by a joint research committee.

During the extension period, which marks the second renewal of the agreement, Pfizer will continue to fund all aspects of the collaboration including research efforts at both companies, and all clinical development costs, it said. The company has committed to provide Icagen with $5 million through December 2011.

Pfizer will also retain its exclusive worldwide rights to commercialize products resulting from the collaboration.

In addition, Icagen will remain eligible to receive approximately $359 million when it achieves specified research, development, regulatory and commercialization milestones for each product. The company can also receive tiered royalties, against which the commercialization milestones are creditable, based upon product sales.

"The collaboration has made substantial progress, as highlighted by the recent initiation of clinical studies with compounds directed against Nav1.7," said president and CEO of Icagen P. Kay Wagoner.

Based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, Icagen is focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of orally-administered small molecule drugs that modulate ion channel targets.

The company is conducting research in a number of disease areas, including epilepsy, pain and inflammation.

It has jumped more than 33% in morning trading on Thursday, reaching $1.4 by 10:18am ET on the Nasdaq.