Company Co-Founded by U of A Biologist Awarded $14.5 Million in Federal Grants

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Ralph Henry, Distinguished Professor of biological sciences, University of Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – InterveXion Therapeutics LLC, an Arkansas-based pharmaceutical research and development company co-founded by a biologist at the University of Arkansas, has received two federal grants totaling $14.5 million for development of drug therapies that can help methamphetamine drug abusers break their addiction.

Ralph Henry, a Distinguished Professor of biological sciences, co-founded InterveXion Therapeutics in 2004 with University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences researchers S. Michael Owens and Dr. W. Brooks Gentry. Henry currently holds the title of vice president of biopharmaceutics for the Little Rock firm. UAMS is the sub-awardee on the grants.

Building on successful completion of their first human clinical study, a $5 million award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health will support additional research and production of an anti-methamphetamine monoclonal antibody setting the stage for InterveXion’s next phase of human testing. 

The antibody binds methamphetamine in the blood stream, preventing the drug from entering the brain where it is known to cause the pleasurable effects that support addiction. If successful, it would be the first medication to reduce or eliminate these effects over a long period of time.

A $9.55 million award – also from the National Institute on Drug Abuse – will support research to develop a vaccine intended to stimulate a patient’s own immune system into making antibodies that bind methamphetamine. Much like InterveXion’s monoclonal antibody, the patient’s own antibodies are expected to prevent methamphetamine from entering the brain by binding methamphetamine in the blood stream.

“We expect that results from the vaccine work will position InterveXion to rapidly move forward into human clinical testing,” said Henry, the W.M. Keck Professor in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering at the university.

Henry is named on two patents that support InterveXion’s intellectual property portfolio.

Owens 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. Gentry is a 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, who holds both a doctorate in biological sciences and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Arkansas, is operations director for InterveXion and is co-program director and co-principal investigator for both grants.