Ensysce Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENSC) announced receipt of a $5.3 million Notice of Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), completing a multi-year $15.1 million federal grant supporting development of its MPAR® (Multi-Pill Abuse Resistance) overdose-protection technology.

The funding represents the third consecutive annual installment under Award Number DA047682. Ensysce said the grant will support completion of the PF614-MPAR-102 clinical study and long-term non-clinical studies required for a future New Drug Application (NDA) submission for its lead candidate, PF614-MPAR.

PF614-MPAR received Breakthrough Therapy designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration following a review of initial clinical data from study PF614-101. The drug candidate is designed to maintain therapeutic opioid exposure under prescribed use while chemically limiting additional opioid release when excessive doses are ingested.

Chief Executive Officer Lynn Kirkpatrick cited data indicating approximately 80,000 people in the U.S. die annually from opioid overdoses. "This continued NIDA funding allows us to keep advancing MPAR®, a new class of chemically engineered opioids designed to actively safeguard patients, even in situations involving misuse or dosing mistakes," she said.

Ensysce stated its underlying TAAP™ and MPAR® platforms are being explored across additional drug classes, including amphetamines and methadone, targeting treatments for pain, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and opioid use disorder. The company is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical firm based in San Diego, California.