QRxPharma's opioid greater than the sum of its parts

Minimising the side-effects that plague patients taking opioid pain-relievers will be the big advantage of Queensland-based QRxPharma’s novel opioid candidate Q8003, according to Alex Baker Program Manager at QRxPharma.

The company today announced an agreement with Shire Laboratories, a subsidiary of Massachusetts-based Shire Pharmaceuticals Group, under which Shire will develop extended release formulations of Q8003.

“We’re leveraging proprietary technologies off Shire in developing slow release formulations,” said Baker. “The immediate release form is the first one that we’ve started to develop. The controlled release formulation means you can reduce pill-burden which can be quite important for elderly patients. We’ll also most likely look at an IV formulation.”

Q8003 is a cocktail of known opioids which offers pain relief with fewer side-effects. The advantages of the combination-dose were discovered in 1995 by Marie Smith, working in the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Queensland.

“[It is possible to use] opioids in combination at a sub-analgesic dose which would not ordinarily provide analgesic relief to a patient,” says Baker.

“Essential because you have this synergy occurring you get an enhanced analgesic effect at a lower dose. At current therapeutic doses you see the side-effects of nausea, constipation and respiratory depression.

“Anybody that has been exposed to an opioid for therapeutic control will receive side-effects of some sort – the nature of the receptor interaction.”

Phase II trials of Q8003 were completed last year, showing efficacy and confirming that a reduction in overall opioid dose was possible. QrxPharma is currently preparing an Investigational New Drug submission for the US Food and Drug Administration, and expects to move ahead into Phase III trials later this year, or in early 2005.

QRxPharma was formed in late 2002 with initial venture capital backing from Innovation Capital (Australia and US), Nanyang Ventures (Australia), SpringRidge Ventures (US) and UniSeed (Australia).