Sparian Biosciences has initiated a Phase I study of SBS-147, an arylepoxamide receptor (AEAr) agonist under development for the treatment of both acute and chronic pain.
The trial is focused on oral administration and targets expanded dosing flexibility over previous compounds.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
SBS-1000, the precursor designed for acute pain, has already completed a Phase I single-ascending dose (SAD) trial as a parenteral compound and remains under development for acute pain use.
The Phase I trial combines single and multiple ascending dose arms and will assess the tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and safety of SBS-147 in healthy volunteers.
The therapy’s development from Phase I to Phase II will be funded by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) / National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) HEAL grant of $15m. This marks the company’s fifth NIH/NIDA award, with total government grants amounting to $75m.
Washington University in St Louis professor Susruta Majumdar was involved in the development of both SBS-147 and SBS-1000.
Sparian Biosciences CEO Dr Jeffrey Reich said: “SBS-147 builds on the success of the first-generation AEAr agonist, SBS-1000. The added dosing flexibility as an oral compound expands potential indications to include acute and chronic pain.
“Effective pain management remains a significant challenge across medicine and surgery, and SBS-147 has the potential to replace opioids for the treatment of acute and chronic pain. In the face of the ongoing opioid crisis, we believe the AEAr agonists like SBS-147 and SBS-1000 could represent fundamental and critically needed innovation.
“We have been eager to get back into the clinic with the next-generation AEAr agonist, one with oral dosing, and we hope that the promising preclinical profile of SBS-147 will translate to human studies.”
