SAN DIEGO, Oct. 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Peptide Logic, a biopharmaceutical company developing peptide-antibody conjugates (PACs) for pain (www.peptidelogic.com), announced today that it was awarded up to $ 3.0 million in a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant to develop novel, non-addictive, peripherally-restricted, and long-acting somatostatin receptor 4 (LA‑SSTR4) agonists for the treatment of moderate-to-severe pain reducing the need for opioid use. The award is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) as part of the Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative, or the NIH HEAL Initiative.
“We are pleased to receive this NIH HEAL Initiative award in support of our efforts to develop an entirely novel drug class of non-addictive, peripherally-restricted, and long-acting analgesics,” said Pierre Rivière, Ph.D., Founder & CEO of Peptide Logic and Principal Investigator on this grant. “This grant complements previous NIH funding of Peptide Logic’s technology that helped us create PAC agonists for inhibitory peptide G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) expressed on peripheral sensory afferents involved in pain transmission. This work is done with the collaboration of Professor Frank Porreca, Ph.D. at the University of Arizona.”
About Peptide Logic:
Peptide Logic is a biopharmaceutical company developing unprecedented therapeutic solutions for the opioid crisis, including novel, non-addictive, peripherally-restricted, and long-acting analgesics to reduce prescription opioids and prevent development of addiction in patients.
About the HEAL initiative:
The National Institutes of Health launched the “Helping to End Addiction Long-term” Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative, in April 2018 to improve prevention and treatment strategies for opioid misuse and addiction and enhance pain management. The NIH HEAL Initiative aims to improve treatments for chronic pain, curb the rates of opioid use disorder and overdose and achieve long-term recovery from opioid addiction. Peptide Logic ‘s award is one of 375 grant awards across 41 states made by the NIH in fiscal year 2019 to apply scientific solutions to reverse the national opioid crisis.
“It’s clear that a multi-pronged scientific approach is needed to reduce the risks of opioids, accelerate development of effective non-opioid therapies for pain and provide more flexible and effective options for treating addiction to opioids,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., who launched the initiative in early 2018. “This unprecedented investment in the NIH HEAL Initiative demonstrates the commitment to reversing this devastating crisis.”
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SOURCE Peptide Logic