RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Verinetics was awarded a contract through the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to develop a system the company calls DispenSecur version 1, or DSv1, which aims to expand access to medications that can treat opioid use disorder (MOUD).

The $1.5 million contract is awarded under the Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) Phase II program, the company shared in a statement.

According to the company’s website, the overprescribing of opioids has led to 11.5 million people misusing opioids.

“The total economic burden of prescription opioid misuse alone in the United States is $78.5 billion a year, which includes costs of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement,” the company website reads.

According to the 2020 National Surveys of Drug Use and Health, 2.7 million people in the United States have opioid use disorder.

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But the company contends that this number is far low, stating on its website that those who have received a diagnosis represent only 18% of Americans who are misusing opioid drugs, possibly due to receiving high morphine equivalent (MME) prescriptions.

According to the company, methadone when used as an MOUD may only be dispensed from an opioid treatment program (OTP), according to existing regulations.

The result is that there are barriers to receiving safe and effective treatment.  That’s why the company is developing its product, to provide an “alternative solution that increases access to take home methadone privileges through “remote supervision” and autonomous dispensing deactivation,” according to its statement.

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“We are committed to improving lives of the country’s most stigmatized people who simply need convenient yet controlled access to their life saving medications,” said Tom Mercolino, president and CEO of Verinetics.  “We believe DispenSecur™ will be a groundbreaking tool to enable individuals to receive take-home doses in earlier phases of treatment. Dosing at home means these individuals have more time for work and their families.”