OU to create National Research Center for Addiction Care

Center to address multiple forms of addiction

The University of Oklahoma on Sunday announced plans to expand its addiction research, training and treatment programs to become what will be called the National Research Center for Addiction Care.

“Our National Research Center for Addiction Care will place Oklahoma at the forefront of addiction research and treatment,” said Joseph Harroz Jr ., interim OU president. “It will be the first effort in the state to comprehensively address addiction — from tobacco and opioids to obesity — as a disease and deliver groundbreaking research developments in our state's clinical and treatment environments.”

The OU Health Sciences Center is the largest healthcare research organization in the state and has a history of national leadership and collaboration in pursuing addiction

care research, officials said.

“At the O UH eal th Sciences Center, we have a unique opportunity to help the state and those suffering from opioid addiction, by leveraging all of our addiction research assets, and comprehensive ly deploying new preventions and treatments at scale through our training programs and patient care delivery system,” said Dr. Jason Sanders, senior vice president and provost for the OU Health Sciences Center.

Last March, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter announced a nearly $270 million settlement agreement with opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma that designated the bulk of that money, about $200 million, to go to the Oklahoma State University Center for Wellness and Recovery in Tulsa. There it will be used to establish a national center on addiction modeled after the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The attorney general announced another $85 million settlement with Te va Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. on Sunday.

Sanders said OU looks forward to working with OSU and other strategic partners to make sure grant funds are used in the best way possible to prevent and treat opioid addiction and al l other forms of addiction.

The National Cancer Institute has recognized OU's research in tobacco prevention and control as one of the Top 2% in the country, and scientists are pursuing new research to apply discoveries and interventions from tobacco addiction to opioid addiction, OU officials said.

They said they would like to have about $271.5 million to expand the National Research Center for Addiction Care. They would propose to use $103.3 million to expand current and develop new research; $ 70.2 million for additional training programs focusing on the broad spectrum of addictions; $30 million to translate research breakthroughs into bed side care; and $68 million for an endowment to sustain training and treatment advances for patients.

OU trains about 80% of the state's healthcare workforce of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, and other health professionals, officials said. Currently, t he OU Health Sciences Center has nearly $15 million in active addiction research grant funding, with another $15 million in addiction research grant proposals pending.

“Oklahoma is statistically at the epicenter of our national addiction crisis, but we can also be its point of departure,” Harroz said. “With medical leadership, training and investment, this crisis can be part of our history rather than a debilitating and devastating impact on our future.”

“With medical leadership, training and investment, this crisis can be part of our history rather than a debilitating and devastating impact on our future.” Joseph Harroz Jr. interim OU president