UF Health has been selected as one of 20 sites across the nation to participate in a trial of a new treatment for knee pain. The clinical trial is part of the ongoing NIH HEAL Initiative to identify nonopioid pain treatments.
The trial, titled “A 24-week study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of CNTX-6970 in subjects with moderate to severe knee osteoarthritis pain,” is the first study to come out of the Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network (EPPIC-Net).
EPPIC-Net was created to enhance the treatment of acute and chronic pain and reduce the reliance on opioids by accelerating early-phase clinical trials of nonaddictive pain treatments. It is part of the NIH Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative, which is an aggressive, transagency effort at the NIH to accelerate scientific solutions to stem the national opioid public health crisis.
The new trial is a phase 2, randomized, multicenter, placebo-controlled, multi-crossover study to evaluate CNTX-6970 as a new treatment for chronic pain, including painful knee osteoarthritis.
Patient enrollment is anticipated to start in August 2021.
The EPPIC-Net infrastructure contains a Clinical Coordinating Center (CCC), a Data Coordinating Center (DCC), and Clinical Research Sites (“Hubs”). UF is a hub with nine spokes.
Rene Przkora, M.D., Ph.D., professor of anesthesiology, and Patrick Tighe, M.D., M.S., associate professor of anesthesiology and the Donn M. Dennis, M.D., professor of anesthetic innovation, are the principal investigators on the NIH U24 grant that was awarded to fund EPPIC-Net. Additional institutional support is from site directors Hari Parvataneni, M.D., professor of orthopaedic surgery; Roland Staud, M.D., F.A.C.P., professor of rheumatology; Linda Cottler, Ph.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.E., associate dean for research at the College of Public Health and Health Professions, dean’s professor of epidemiology, and director of HealthStreet (direct community engagement); and many others at UF.