Understanding Opioid Use Disorder
The Scope
The Global Ripple Effect of Opioid Use Disorder
The effects of opioid use disorder are far reaching and devastating for communities globally. Not only does it affect the people stuck in the cycle of addiction, it impacts their families, networks, and communities at large. Over 26 million people worldwide are struggling with opioid use disorder, with more than 100,000 deaths occurring every year from overdoses. The current opioid crisis has grown to such a degree that governments at all levels have been forced to take action.
The Canadian federal government recently announced the appointment of a new mental health and addictions ministry following a surge in opioid overdose cases at the beginning of 2021, with 1,772 deaths occurring between January and March. With 20 people dying each day, this was a 63% increase from the same time period in 2020, according to the government website.
The Progression
Addiction Begins with Withdrawal
From nonmedical opioid users to pain patients, the opioid crisis is affecting everyone.
Fear of experiencing the debilitating symptoms of withdrawal is one of biggest barriers preventing people from stopping opioid use. Withdrawal is experienced by all people on the opioid use spectrum who have developed physical dependence.
Opioid withdrawal as a lived experience:
“I’m a healthy 62-year-old man and have tried to stop taking this medication, but the withdrawal symptoms are awful… I have nothing to lose…”
“I can’t live this way, and I know many, many people who feel the same… It’s like the new cancer.”
“We’ve been through every step, every program, every rehab. Not one of them is working successfully. In the end, your physical pain and the opiate withdrawal just kill all attempts at rehabilitation.”
The timeline for the onset of peak withdrawal symptoms.
Current Interventions
Creating a Gap for Patients Worldwide
Current interventions to treat opioid withdrawal symptoms rely on long-acting opioid medications or drugs that impair normal nervous system function. Non-opioid pharmacological options for treating withdrawal are limited, have proven to be largely ineffective, and are known to cause serious side effects.
Consequently, less than 30% of patients on opioid replacement therapies achieve abstinence, creating a huge unmet need for millions of people all over the world. Having safe and effective interventions that reduce withdrawal and prevent relapse can break the cycle of opioid use.
Discovering a New Solution
How AphioTx’s Innovative Treatment Can Help Tackle the Opioid Crisis
Our team has identified an important protein channel on a group of immune cells in the brain and spinal cord that plays a key role in treating opioid withdrawal symptoms. This channel is called pannexin-1.
AphioTx is developing a clinically approved, safe and effective treatment that targets the pannexin-1 protein and helps to alleviate opioid withdrawal symptoms. This therapy is currently in ongoing phase 2a clinical trials.
The potential to introduce this safe treatment option to patients could fill a huge unmet need for the global opioid crisis, breaking the cycle of opioid use and withdrawal. AphioTx’s groundbreaking treatment has the potential to change and save lives.
Curious to learn more about AphioTx’s innovative science? Get in touch.
Working together To Fight the Opioid Crisis
Interested in working together to fight the opioid crisis? Contact us to learn more about opportunities with AphioTx.