LONDON (Alliance News) - Drug discovery company C4X Discovery Holdings PLC said on Tuesday it has been awarded a USD480,000 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for the company's C4X3256 programme.
The US grant is expected to support the pre-clinical development of the treatment in cocaine use disorder, and C4X will investigate C4X3256's efficacy in preclinical self-administration and reinstatement models of cocaine seeking and taking behaviours.
C4X3256 is an oral Orexin-1 receptor antagonist, used to treat the craving and potential relapse in cocaine addiction, and has been recently licensed to Indivior PLC.
The one-year project is expected to start in the third quarter of 2018.
"The team at C4X is delighted that the C4X3256 programme has received this grant award from NIDA, one of the US National Institutes of Health, in recognition of our drug discovery expertise and the current significant unmet medical need in substance abuse disorders. Inhibition of the Orexin-1 receptor holds much promise as a novel clinical approach to prevent craving and relapse in multiple addictive diseases including cocaine use disorder," said Chief Scientific Officer Craig Fox.
Shares in C4X Discovery Holdings were up 8.4% at 97.00 pence on Tuesday.