21 June 2018 - - San Francisco, California-based research-based development stage biopharmaceutical company Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NKTR) has presented new clinical and preclinical data for NKTR-181 at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, the company said.
NKTR-181 is an analgesic opioid molecule which exhibits a reduced incidence of specific CNS-mediated side effects, such as euphoria, through the targeted alteration of brain-entry kinetics.
The molecular structure of NKTR-181 is designed to have low permeability across the blood-brain barrier in order to slow its rate of entry into the brain and attenuate the dopamine release that underlies euphoria.
Nonclinical and clinical data show that the inherent properties of NKTR-181 reduce its rate of entry into the brain compared to standard mu opioids, regardless of route of administration.
In addition, NKTR-181 has a 14-hour elimination half-life to enable twice-daily dosing for pain control.
The mission of Nektar Therapeutics is to discover and develop innovative medicines to address the unmet medical needs of patients.
Its research and development pipeline of new investigational medicines includes treatments for cancer, auto-immune disease and chronic pain.