Rockville, MD, United States, March 27, 2024– Advanced BioScience Laboratories, Inc. (ABL), a global Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) to the U.S. Government and biopharmaceutical industry announced that it has been awarded a multi-year Task Order worth up to $12,984,807 to manufacture a novel non-opioid based analgesic to support NIH/NINDS-Helping End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Program.  This pain treatment is based on a gene therapy, which has shown a great promise in preclinical animal models for the treatment of chronic knee osteoarthritis.

vHCA8* will act as a long-acting local anesthetic (LALA) to treat the chronic pain that afflicts over 100 million sufferers in the US alone.  The use of a gene therapy will overcome significant limitations of current local anesthetics and address the unmet need for effective non-opioid analgesics for the treatment of the chronic pain associated with osteoarthritis, and potentially other forms of pain.

ABL has extensive experience with viral based expression systems, and vHCA8* will be produced using a replication-defective Herpes Simplex virus. Manufactured vHCA8* will support IND enabling GLP toxicology and a Phase 1 first-in-human clinical studies. “ABL sees the immense potential of long-acting local anesthetics for pain relief and is thrilled to be selected as the contract manufacturing organization to produce vHCA8*. We are honored to be a part of improving the quality of life for patients living with chronic pain in partnership with the HEAL Program,” said Lauren Hudacik, President and CEO of ABL.

Advanced BioScience Laboratories, Inc

9800 Medical Center Drive, Building D

Rockville, MD 20850

Contact: Christina Mayer, PhD

Phone: 301-816-5295

Email: christina.mayer@ablinc.com