Benzinga | Jul 8, 2021 08:17AM EDT

Ensysce Biosciences Receives Notice of Award For 3 Of Multi-Year National Institute On Drug Abuse Grant For Clinical Development Of Next Generation Opioid Products With Overdose Protection; Grant Will Provide $2.8M For Phase 1 Study

Ensysce Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:ENSC) ("Ensysce" or "the Company"), a clinical stage biotech company with proprietary technology platforms to reduce the economic and social burden of prescription drug abuse and overdose, today announced receipt of the 3rd year award of a multi-year grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). This award will provide $2.8 million to initiate a Phase 1 study of the first MPAR(tm) overdose protection product in the U.S., PF614-MPAR. This brings the total support of NIDA to $8.0 million. An additional $2.8 million award for year four is pending.



"We are honored to receive the UH3 award titled 'PF614 MPAR Abuse Deterrent opioid prodrug with overdose protection: Pre-Clinical Development and Phase 1 Clinical Trial' from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which provides us with additional resources to continue our work to bring PF614-MPAR(tm) into clinical development," said Dr. Lynn Kirkpatrick, Chief Executive Officer of Ensysce Biosciences. "Importantly, our next-generation opioid platform is highly differentiated from currently marketed opioid products and designed to significantly reduce abuse potential and overdose protection. We remain focused on our commitment to stem the prescription drug abuse epidemic and look forward to bringing our unique pipeline of products to the industry, which will ultimately provide safer options for both prescribers and patients."

PF614-MPAR(tm) is designed as an extended-release oxycodone prodrug with both trypsin-activated abuse protection (TAAP) and overdose protection through multi-pill abuse resistance (MPAR(tm)) technology. TAAP chemical modification inactivates the active ingredient in PF614 to provide abuse deterrence, and the combination with the trypsin inhibitor, nafamostat, in MPAR(tm) provides the additional layer of overdose protection. The MPAR(tm) overdose protection has been demonstrated in animals and the Phase 1 study with PF614 is being conducted to further validate the MPAR(tm) overdose protection technology. The Phase 1 study trial, "A Single Dose Study to Evaluate the Pharmacokinetics of oxycodone and PF614, when PF614 Solution is Co-Administered with Nafamostat, as an Immediate Release Solution and/or Extended Release (ER) Capsule Formulations in Healthy Subjects" is being conducted by Dr. Maricer Escalon MD, MS, MBA at Quotient Sciences.

"This award further confirms Ensysce's important TAAP and MPAR(tm) technology, which has been recognized by NIH, NIDA and the Federal Government," said Dr. William Schmidt, Chief Medical Officer of Ensysce. "We remain committed to addressing the significant unmet needs in the marketplace, and look forward to advancing our pipeline of opioid TAAP and MPAR(tm) products to combat the opioid crisis."