SBIR Phase I: Novel injectable long-acting local anesthetic for postoperative pain management

Award ID: 2026176

The broader impact /commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project develops novel pain therapeutics that can reduce or eliminate the use of opioids after surgery. Opioid-based medications are a mainstay of postoperative pain management, with approximately 80% of surgical patients receiving prescriptions, but may result in opioid-misuse disorders with 10% of patients progressing to long-term use. In addition to being potentially deadly, this use can be associated with adverse events, such as addiction, respiratory depression, cognitive impairment, nausea, constipation; consequences include increased cost of care, hospital length of stay, and readmission rates. The goal of the proposed work is to develop a prototype long-acting local anesthetic that is easy-to-use, can provide sustained local anesthesia for 72 hours, and presents limited safety risks. This SBIR Phase I project will perform formulation optimization of a novel long-acting local anesthetic for postoperative pain management. Currently, options for long-acting local anesthesia suffer drawbacks such as limited duration, high costs, inadequate efficacy, cumbersome equipment, and risk of infection; these limit their utility as safe and effective postoperative pain management. This project will optimize formulation parameters for the desired drug release profile. Additionally, the stability of the resulting formulations will be validated to ensure adequate shelf-life stability. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Kaitlin Bratlie