Hefty grant pays for cocaine research
November 21, 2015
STAFF REPORT
Researchers UK and Wake Forest University have been awarded $6 million to develop a new treatment for cocaine addiction and overdose.
College of Pharmacy professor Chang-Guo Zhan and his team have designed “an enzyme that specifically breaks down cocaine in the bloodstream without producing harmful byproducts in the body,” according to a press release. The funding will help the team prepare the drug for clinical trials.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse is funding the research project through the Translational Avant-Garde Award. UK HealthCare expects it will help Zhan push it closer to clinical trials.
There are two stages of the drug’s development and it is now in its second stage. The first stage showed that the drug is safe for human consumption, Zhan said in a video.
“There currently is no FDA-approved treatment for cocaine overdose or cocaine addiction, and Dr. Zhan and his research team are trying to change that,” said Kelly Smith, interim dean of the College of Pharmacy, in a UKNow press release. “Developing such therapies would be a major breakthrough for health care.”
