RESEARCH TEAM

Research team focuses on weakening rush of meth

working to curtail meth addiction.

A research team with ties to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences is working on a cutting-edge treatment to curtail methamphetamine addiction, the University of Arkansas System board of trustees learned Thursday.

At their regular meeting, trustees heard about a treatment for a “hidden public crisis,” as Michael Owens, the chief scientific officer of InterveXion Therapeutics, referred to it. Owens retired from a UAMS professorship in August.

“Opiates draw the attention but mask a devastating underlying meth problem,” Owens told trustees, pointing to a 245% increase in hospitalizations for methamphetamine use between 2008 and 2015.

His group’s in-development therapy is a pharmaceutical-grade antibody that helps keep methamphetamine from affecting the brain, binding to the drug and pulling it back into the bloodstream.

Owens said it could be used to prevent relapse, for people who use methamphetamine but want to quit, or to curb intoxication (such as in cases of overdose in emergency rooms).

“If it reduces the rush that people have, then they’re not going to come back to it as [quickly],” he added.

Developed as a long-acting treatment, an estimated oncea-month dose could be used in conjunction with therapy to help people recover from addiction.

The project has been highlighted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and fasttracked by the Food and Drug Administration as a potential treatment for a serious condition with an unmet medical need.

It’s still in trials, but if it works well and gains approval, it could become available to patients around 2025, Owens said.

Trustees praised the project, but said they wished there were a way to have prevented Owens from retiring.

Interve Xion Therapeutics, a privately held biopharma company, is located in the Bio Ventures building at UAMS and is staffed in part by current and former UAMS scientists, according to its website.