OREX-1019: A Novel Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder and Relapse Prevention

Abstract

There is an urgent need for new pharmacological treatments for substance use disorders, including opioid use disorder, particularly for use in relapse prevention. A combination of buprenorphine with naltrexone has shown particular promise, with clinical studies indicating a substantial improvement over treatment with naltrexone alone. OREX-1019 (formerly BU10119) is a compound that mimics the pharmacology of the buprenorphine/naltrexone combination. This study evaluated, in rhesus monkeys, the therapeutic potential of OREX-1019 for treating opioid use disorder. Pretreatment with OREX-1019 (0.01-0.3 mg/kg s.c.) dose-dependently decreased responding for the μ opioid receptor agonist remifentanil in rhesus monkeys but did not maintain levels of responding above vehicle when it was available for self-administration. OREX-1019 (0.01-1.0 mg/kg s.c.) also decreased cue- plus heroin-primed reinstatement of extinguished responding in monkeys that self-administered remifentanil but did not alter cue- plus cocaine-primed reinstatement of responding in monkeys that self-administered cocaine. OREX-1019 (0.3 mg/kg s.c.), like naltrexone (0.1 mg/kg s.c.), increased heart rate and blood pressure, produced overt observable signs, and eliminated food-maintained responding in monkeys treated chronically with morphine. These results confirm that OREX-1019 has little or no efficacy at μ opioid receptorsand has low abuse potential, and, combined with promising safety (clean profile vs. other off-target proteins including the hERG (human ether-a-go-go-related gene) K⁺ channel) and pharmacokinetic data (supporting administration by subcutaneous or sublingual routes, but with low oral bioavailability), suggest it could be a safe and effective alternative to current treatments for opioid use disorders particularly as applied to relapse prevention. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: The novel opioid OREX-1019 potentially provides an improved relapse prevention agent for use in opioid use disorder. The current study demonstrates that in monkeys OREX-1019 is able to inhibit the self-administration of, and cue- plus heroin-primed reinstatement of, responding previously maintained by remifentanil.