Phoenix PharmaLabs Raises More than $1 Million for Continued Development of Non-Addictive Opioids
June 25, 2021
Phoenix PharmaLabs, Inc. has completed a second successful round of financing raising $1.07 million via the Netcapital equity funding portal to continue development of two non-addictive opioids to treat acute and chronic pain.
“More than a thousand investors, many of whom invested in our previous funding, participated in this offering, indicating to us they did so because they were pleased with our progress in the past two years – even with the challenges that the COVID-19 shutdowns caused to our development timeline,” said William Crossman, President and CEO of Phoenix PharmaLabs.
“Patients and providers desparately need access to non-addictive pain medications and Phoenix PharmaLabs is well on their way to deliver on that need,” said Kelvyn Cullimore, president and CEO of BioUtah.
Crossman explained that this funding opportunity, along with grants received from the US Army and NIH/NIDA, as well as investments from accredited investors, enable the company to continue to advance the development of two compounds that have demonstrated in studies significant potential to be potent, safe, non-addictive analgesics.
In August 2020, the company acquired a portfolio of 25 compounds from the University of Bath. One of these compounds is being advanced as PPL-138 to treat chronic pain without the potential for addiction or other significant opioid side effects. This compound, and PPL-103, the non-addictive opioid under development by the company to treat acute pain, will continue to be advanced by the company into the clinic – for Phase 1, 2 and Proof-of-Concept clinical trials. Both compounds have also shown promise in preclinical studies as treatments for opioid addiction (PPL-103) and cocaine addition (PPL-138) and the company is pursuing these indications as well.
During the pandemic, the opioid crisis accelerated. Late last year, the CDC reported 81,000 deaths from opioids for the 12 months ended May 2020.
“There continues to be an urgency to this problem and the need for non-addictive analgesics is huge,” affirmed Crossman, whose own stepson suffers from addiction after being prescribed opioids to treat pain following a construction accident more than a decade ago. “Many of our investors are individuals, like me, whose families have been personally affected by the opioid crisis.”