Approximately 100 million people in the United States suffer from pain with some 9 to 12 million individuals suffering from chronic or persistent pain.1 With opioids remaining at the forefront of treatment, it has become clear that opioid abuse and opioid overdose have emerged as significant and complicated public health challenges. Drug overdose from opioids is the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S. with an estimated 100 individuals a day dying from opioid overdose due to respiratory depression.2 Although multiple factors are unquestionably responsible for the increase in the use and abuse of opioids, there is a pressing need for an effective opioid analgesic that also addresses the significant issues surrounding opioid abuse liability and overdose fatalities. Advances in our understanding of the pharmacological mechanisms associated with signaling of G-protein coupled receptors have resulted in the knowledge that activation of the mu-opioid receptor (MOR) mediates both the therapeutic and adverse effects and does so through pharmacologically distinct signaling pathways. The adverse effects associated with morphine and other MOR agonists have been traced to action through the β-arrestin pathway, while analgesia is tied to the G-protein pathway. G-protein specific agonists that avoid activation of β-arrestin signaling and its associated negative consequences provide novel strategies for the development of pathway specific or ‘biased’ drugs designed to selectively produce analgesia while eliminating unwanted adverse effects that include respiratory depression, abuse liability, and constipation. Mebias Discovery, Inc. has developed a novel platform and has identified highly ‘biased’ MOR agonists that are effective analgesics but are devoid of opioid induced adverse effects. Mebias’ preclinical studies of its IND candidate MEB-1170 has shown efficacy in 3 pain models without the known opioid adverse effects (respiratory depression, tolerance to analgesia, sedation, constipation) shown by marketed MOR drugs. In addition, MEB-1170 shows promise in abuse liability models (self-administration, drug discrimination, condition place preference, withdrawal) suggesting it could be a game changer as a non-addictive analgesic to replace Scheduled II opioids in pain management. The Supplemental Funding request will be utilized to help cover the cost of the GMP scale up of MEB-1170 for the scheduled Phase 1 clinical studies. 1 Califf, Robert M., Janet Woodcock, and Stephen Ostroff." A proactive response to prescription opioid abuse." New England Journal of Medicine 374, no.15 (2016): 1480-1485. 2 "Opioid overdose." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. August 30, 2017. Accessed January 12, 2018. https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html

Given the opioid crisis is a USA Public Health emergency, the need for a new generation of medicines devoid of respiratory depression and abuse potential has never been greater. The research proposed in this grant application focuses on developing Mebias Discovery’s novel drug candidates that, in pre-clinical models, match currently marketed opioids in relieving pain but are devoid of dangerous adverse effects. Considering the urgency, we are on target to file an IND application with the FDA by end of Q1 2022. We are also on target to enter Phase 1 human clinical studies by Q3 2022.