SiteOne Therapeutics Awarded up to $15M Grant to Develop NaV1.8 Inhibitor as Non-Opioid Therapeutic for Pain

The National Institute on Drug Abuse through the NIH HEAL Initiative will fund development of SiteOne's selective NaV1.8 inhibitor for the treatment of pain

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., May 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- SiteOne Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing isoform-selective inhibitors of the voltage gated sodium channel (NaV) for the treatments of pain, cough, and other conditions involving hypersensitivity of the nervous system, today announced that it has received a grant (UG3DA058552) for up to $15 million from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) for the development of STC-004, an investigational, non-opioid treatment for acute and chronic pain conditions. The grant was awarded through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative, a trans-agency effort to accelerate the development of scientific solutions to the national opioid public health crisis.

The award, titled "Development of a Potent and Selective Nav1.8 inhibitor for the Treatment of Acute and Chronic Pain with the Goal of Reducing Opioid Use and Preventing Opioid Use Disorders," is a UG3/UH3 Phase Innovation Awards Cooperative Agreement involving two phases. The UG3 phase is to support a project with specific milestones to be accomplished by the end of a two-year period. The UH3 phase will provide funding for a further three years to a project that successfully completed the milestones set in the UG3 phase. Application budgets are limited to $3 million direct costs per year and UG3 projects that have met their milestones will be considered by NIDA and prioritized for transition to the UH3 phase, with the total funding currently expected to be available under both the UG3 and UH3 phases to be a maximum of $15 million in direct costs.

"SiteOne Therapeutics is honored to receive funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to develop innovative solutions for the treatment of pain and aim to reduce our health care system's reliance on opioids," commented John Mulcahy, President and Chief Executive Officer of SiteOne Therapeutics. "This award validates our approach to addressing pain by targeting individual sodium channel isoforms, NaV1.7 and NaV1.8, that are predominantly expressed in pain-sensing nerve fibers."

"The perception of pain is a complex neurological process, and the key to providing solutions to address both acute and chronic pain is to selectively target pathways that lead to this sensation. Both opioids and over-the-counter NSAIDs can sometimes pose major health risks to patients and are ineffective in blocking certain types of pain, particularly neuropathic pain," noted John Hunter, Chief Scientific Officer of SiteOne Therapeutics. "Our therapeutic approach of inhibiting sodium channel function aims to limit the hypersensitivity reaction to pain by regulating the misfiring of peripheral nerves that transmit the perceived pain to the central nervous system. This grant is essential in funding the clinical development of our NaV1.8 inhibitors with the goal to provide relief to patients across a variety of pain conditions."

This research is supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health and the NIH Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative under award number UG3DA058552. The content presented in this release is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.  

About SiteOne Therapeutics

SiteOne Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company advancing a novel class of highly selective small molecule inhibitors targeting NaV1.7, NaV1.8, and other voltage-gated sodium ion channels to treat peripheral hypersensitivity disorders such as chronic cough, itch, and pain. Since its inception, SiteOne has been dedicated to the development of safe and effective pain therapeutics without the significant addiction potential and side effects of opioids. The company is also advancing additional novel drug candidates that exhibit precise selectivity for individual sodium channel subtypes to treat other hypersensitivity disorders such as chronic cough and chronic ocular surface pain. For more information, visit www.siteonetherapeutics.com.

About the NIH HEAL Initiative

The Helping to End Addiction Long-term® Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative®, is an aggressive, trans-NIH effort to speed scientific solutions to stem the national opioid public health crisis. Launched in April 2018, the initiative is focused on improving prevention and treatment strategies for opioid misuse and addiction, and enhancing pain management. For more information, visit: https://heal.nih.gov.

Media Contact:
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Russo Partners, LLC
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SOURCE SiteOne Therapeutics