UAMS Startup Receives $14.5 Million to Develop Drug Therapies for Meth Users

LITTLE ROCK – A University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) BioVentures startup company, InterveXion Therapeutics LLC, has received two federal grants totaling $14.5 million for development of drug therapies that can help methamphetamine drug abusers break their addiction.

The therapies are designed to reduce or prevent the euphoric rush that drug users crave by keeping methamphetamine in the bloodstream and out of the brain, where the drug exerts its most powerful effects.

The larger of the two grants, $9.55 million over three years, will support research that will determine whether a methamphetamine vaccine may be safely advanced into a clinical trial with human participants. The vaccine is a promising new strategy that could stimulate a patient’s own immune system to generate long-acting, protective anti methamphetamine antibodies.

The other grant of $5 million over three years will support production of the anti-methamphetamine monoclonal antibody that has been successfully tested in a first clinical study of healthy adults. The grant will also fund more research to show that the antibody is safe for methamphetamine users. The additional study will prepare researchers for the next clinical trial involving methamphetamine-using participants.

This antibody does not stimulate the immune system, but it selectively and quickly binds methamphetamine in the blood and prevents it from entering the brain and other tissues where it causes multiple health problems, including addiction. It would be the first medication that can reduce methamphetamine’s effects for prolonged periods of time.

The antibody has an immediate impact on the user and is effective for about a month. The vaccine takes several weeks to become effective, and it may blunt methamphetamine’s effects for nine months or longer.

Both grants are to InterveXion from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). UAMS is a sub-awardee.

Mike Owens, Ph.D is co-program director and co-principal investigator on the vaccine grant. He is a professor and director of the UAMS Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse and InterveXion’s chief science officer.

W. Brooks Gentry, M.D., is co-program director and co-principal investigator on the monoclonal antibody grant. He is a professor and chair of the Department of Anesthesiology in the UAMS College of Medicine and InterveXion’s chief medical officer.

Misty Stevens, Ph.D., M.B.A., is operations director for InterveXion and is co-program director and co-principal investigator for both grants. Ralph Henry, Ph.D., is vice president for biopharmaceutics at InterveXion and a co-investigator on both grants.

Assuming the antibody and vaccine receive federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, they can be provided as an integral part of a methamphetamine user’s complete treatment program, which consists of counseling and possibly other medications to reduce craving.

Neither the monoclonal antibody nor the vaccine should interact with other medications, nor should they impact brain function or interfere with psychiatric counseling. The vaccine would be less expensive than the antibody, but it is expected to be less effective for some people, especially those with compromised immune systems.

Pollock Moves To Fort Smith Internal Medicine

FORT SMITH – Solangel Pollock, MD, has joined Trevor Hodge, MD, at Sparks Fort Smith Internal Medicine located at 708 Lexington.

Both physicians are accepting new patients. The clinic offers general medical care for adult men and women including routine exams, diabetes management, and hypertension management, treatment of skin conditions and management of chronic diseases.

She joined Sparks in March 2014 after working in a busy urgent care facility in Miami, Fla.

Dr. Pollock became Internal Medicine Board Certified in 2007. Before that she fulfilled her residency at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens, New York, which is considered one of the most intense programs in the nation with 72-hour “on-call” duties including trauma and burn patients.

Pollock grew up in a small town in Cuba where her mother was a nurse and was inspired to provide medical care for others. From 1996-1999, Dr. Pollock was the ultimate “town Doctor,” treating much of the population of Villa Clara, Cuba. She is fluent in both Spanish and English.

Dr. Pollock became a proud American citizen in 2004. Her husband is a retired military physician from Arkansas who served twice in Iraq. They are both excited to be living in Arkansas.

Emergency Medicine Physician Greg Bledsoe Joins UAMS

LITTLE ROCK — Greg Bledsoe, M.D., M.P.H., has joined the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and will be treating patients in the UAMS Emergency Department.

Bledsoe is also an associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine in the UAMS College of Medicine and is board certified in emergency medicine.

He came to UAMS from Marshall Medical Center South in Boaz, Alabama, where he was chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine.

Bledsoe completed medical school and residency at UAMS in 2002. He then spent five years on faculty in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, completing a two-year fellowship in international emergency medicine and a Masters in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

His international medical experience includes time in Honduras, Tanzania, Sudan, China, Qatar, Antarctica, and the Arctic, including the North Pole. He was also the personal physician to former President Bill Clinton during Clinton’s tour of Africa in 2002 and has served as an instructor and medical consultant for the U.S. Secret Service.

In addition to his position at UAMS, Bledsoe was chosen by Gov. Asa Hutchinson as the surgeon general for the state of Arkansas.