US drug agency to fund further testing of Solvonis addiction candidate

Tech Written by: Ian Lyall 07:23 Thu 06 Aug 2026 --> Proactive has a commercial relationship with Solvonis Therapeutics PLC. This article was produced independently under Proactive's Editorial Standards Policy . Disclaimer No investment advice About this content Editorial Standards & Policies Share article About this content × About Ian Lyall Ian Lyall, a seasoned journalist and editor, brings over three decades of experience to his role as Managing Editor at Proactive. Overseeing Proactive's editorial and broadcast operations across six offices on three continents, Ian is responsible for quality control, editorial policy, and content production. He directs the creation of 50,000 pieces of real-time news, feature articles, and filmed interviews annually. Prior to Proactive, Ian helped lead the business output at the Daily... Read more About the publisher Proactive financial news and online broadcast teams provide fast, accessible, informative and actionable business and finance news content to a global investment audience. All our content is produced independently by our experienced and qualified teams of news journalists. Proactive news team spans the world’s key finance and investing hubs with bureaus and studios in London, New York, Toronto, Vancouver, Sydney and Perth. We are experts in medium and small-cap markets, we also keep our community up to date with blue-chip companies, commodities and broader investment stories. This is content that excites and engages motivated private investors. The team delivers news and unique insights across the market including but not confined to: biotech and pharma, mining and natural resources, battery metals, oil and gas, crypto and emerging digital and EV technologies. Use of technology Proactive has always been a forward looking and enthusiastic technology adopter. Our human content creators are equipped with many decades of valuable expertise and experience. The team also has access to and use technologies to assist and enhance workflows. Proactive will on occasion use automation and software tools, including generative AI. Nevertheless, all content published by Proactive is edited and authored by humans, in line with best practice in regard to content production and search engine optimisation. Solvonis Therapeutics PLC ( LSE:SVNS OTC:SLVNF ) View Price & Profile US drug agency to fund further testing of Solvonis addiction candidate Published: 07:23 06 Aug 2026 BST Solvonis Therapeutics PLC (LSE:SVNS, OTC:SLVNF) has cleared the first hurdle in a US government testing programme for an experimental treatment for cocaine and methamphetamine addiction. The National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the US government's medical research arm, has agreed to advance the compound, known as SVN-015, into a further round of studies. The agency funds and runs the work itself through its Addiction Treatment Discovery Program, giving the London-listed company access to specialist laboratories without paying for them or issuing new shares. Solvonis keeps ownership of the compound and its patents. The initial screening looked for signs that SVN-015 might interfere with the heart's electrical activity, a problem that has derailed earlier drugs of this type. Solvonis said the compound performed better on those measures than GBR-12909, a compound tested by the agency decades ago as a treatment for cocaine dependence and known to affect several cardiac ion channels. Ion channels are the protein gateways that control the flow of charged particles in and out of heart cells, governing the organ's rhythm. The company cautioned that the findings are laboratory results only and do not establish that the drug is safe in animals or humans. SVN-015 is designed to act on the transporters that recycle dopamine and serotonin, two chemical messengers in the brain that stimulants such as cocaine hijack. The next stage of work will include a mouse study measuring how quickly the compound takes effect and how long its activity lasts. Researchers will also run confirmatory tests on its binding to the dopamine transporter and follow up on its activity at a receptor linked to heart valve damage in some older drugs. There is no medicine approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for stimulant use disorder, leaving behavioural therapy as the main treatment. Anthony Tennyson, chief executive, said the agency's decision provided external validation of the case for further evaluation. Professor David Nutt, the company's chief scientific officer and a prominent figure in British drugs research, described the findings as highly promising early results. The compound remains at the discovery stage, several years from any human trial, and came out of Solvonis's artificial intelligence-assisted drug discovery work. Continue reading