Research Aims, Activities, and Product Development Objectives

TMTRx Research Aims to:

• Understand the mechanisms behind naloxone resistance

• Identify and validate drug candidates

• Develop next generation therapeutics for synthetic opioid overdose and opiod use disorder

R&D activities to-date:

• Demonstrated that naloxone reverses respiratory depression from morphine-derived opioids but does not appear to be effective for reversal of vocal cord closure (VCC) resulting from FFA overdose.

• Pinpointed the potential mechanism of action(s) of FFA that leads to VCC that is not mediated by mu-opioid receptors (MOR) and therefore does not respond to naloxone. 

• Identified three classes of drugs that can potentially mediate or reverse FFA induced VCC.

• Received in an STTR award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to test one class of drugs.

• Submitted two additional proposals to NIDA for development of formulations to treat FFA overdose.

 Product Development Objectives:

• Assess three classes of drugs in its preclinical translational model to assess the efficacy of the three classes of drugs independently and in combination with naloxone. 

• Develop formulations to treat FFA overdose.

• Address needs in medication assisted treatment.

• Develop countermeasures for weaponized FFA.