Grant Funds Company Clinical Trial of Addiction Drug

(NIH)

Omeros Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company  in Seattle, Washington, said today that the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of National Institutes of Health, has provided an additional grant to fund clinical studies for the company’s addiction program. The grant will fund a clinical trial of the company’s drug on addiction to heroin and cigarettes.

Omeros is developing compounds that include peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) agonists for the prevention and treatment of addiction to substances of abuse, such as opioids, nicotine and alcohol, as well as other compulsive behaviors, including eating disorders. Data from earlier European pilot clinical studies and animal models of addiction, says Omeros, have demonstrated a previously unknown link between PPARgamma and addiction disorders.

This grant, for a total of $3.6 million to be paid over a four-year period in equal amounts, will fund direct and indirect costs of Phase 2 clinical studies to be conducted by researchers at the New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI). Earlier this year, NIDA agreed to fund substantially all of the costs of a Phase 2 clinical study to be conducted by NYSPI researchers to evaluate a PPARgamma agonist for the treatment of addiction to prescription opioids. The NIDA support announced today will be used to fund additional Phase 2 clinical studies to evaluate the effect of a PPARgamma agonist in combination with other agents on the use of heroin and cigarettes.