Sparian Biosciences Joins U.S. Senate Panel in Fighting Fentanyl

Sparian Biosciences, Inc. (“Sparian”) submitted testimony to the United States Senate Committee on Finance on the fentanyl public health crisis. Sparian, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, is developing novel therapeutics to address the nation’s ongoing fentanyl and substance use disorder (SUD) crisis. One of Sparian’s highest priority programs (SBS-371) is a new therapeutic to reverse fentanyl overdoses.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, which has broad jurisdiction over federal health policy programs, held a bipartisan hearing on May 23, 2024 to address the growing number of fentanyl and synthetic opioid-related deaths. These illicit substances have hurt American communities across the country, amounting to nearly 76,000 deaths in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.¹

As part of the Committee’s hearing, the panel asked for testimony, also known as statements for the record, from public stakeholders. Given Sparian’s expertise in this field, the company submitted testimony detailing its contributions to combat fentanyl as well as public policy interventions.

After submitting the testimony, Sparian Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, Jeff Reich, M.D., said, “We are grateful for the Committee’s bipartisan efforts to combat fentanyl and are pleased to share our expertise. We would encourage the Committee to continue its longstanding, bipartisan work on this issue, including supporting the NIH’s HEAL Initiative.”

Sparian’s statement for the record is pasted below. For inquiries about this release, please contact Sahil Chaudhary at sahil@sparianbiosciences.com

The Honorable Ron Wyden
Chairman
Committee on Finance
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Mike Crapo
Ranking Member
Committee on Finance
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Chairman Wyden and Ranking Member Crapo:

Sparian Biosciences is grateful for the opportunity to submit a statement for the record for the May 23, 2024 hearing titled, “Front Lines of the Fentanyl Crisis: Supporting Communities and Combating Addiction through Prevention and Treatment.” We commend your leadership and commitment to ending the fentanyl crisis, which is part of the nation’s ongoing substance use disorder (SUD) epidemic.

By the way of background, Sparian Biosciences is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that is at the forefront of developing novel therapeutics to combat fentanyl. One of Sparian’s highest priority drug programs is a novel therapeutic, dubbed SBS-371, that has the potential to improve how fentanyl overdoses are reversed. In addition, SBS-371 could serve as a prophylactic agent or a bio-shield to protect first responders and law enforcement from bioterror attacks deploying highly potent synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

As Chairman Wyden noted in his opening statement, “more needs to be done to head off opioid use in the first place and encourage more non-opioid pain management to be used in American health care.”² Sparian could not agree more; Sparian is working tirelessly to develop a non-opioid pain treatment (SBS-1000 and SBS-147) for patients requiring long-term pain management. This therapeutic is a first-in-class AEAr agonist that is currently in Phase 1 clinical trials. Sparian is proud to be working closely with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) to advance this much-needed alternative to opioids.

The collaboration between Sparian and NIH/NIDA is supported by the Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative, which currently supports 1,800 prevention, treatment and recovery projects focused on fentanyl and other SUDs. HEAL Initiative funding is distributed across all 50 States.³ Sparian is grateful for the Committee’s longstanding bipartisan support for HEAL and would encourage the Committee to continue this support as it represents one of the federal government’s largest commitments to addressing fentanyl.

Sparian is also greatly appreciative of the leadership of Chairman Wyden and Ranking Member Crapo to enact bipartisan legislation that will expand access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT).^4,5 As Chairman Wyden said in his opening statement, MAT “is the gold standard treatment for opioid use disorder.”⁶ Sparian concurs with this is sentiment and is expeditiously advancing, SBS-226, which would provide clinicians with a new pharmacological treatment alongside buprenorphine and methadone to use in MAT.

As Ranking Member Crapo said in his opening remarks, the country needs “targeted policies that can make a difference and address the root causes of the fentanyl crisis.”⁷ Sparian strongly support this position and would add that these targeted policies should involve interdisciplinary approaches. To ensure appropriate use of federal resources on targeted policies, Sparian would encourage the Committee to support a whole-of-government initiative to tackle fentanyl that is modeled after best practices from the bipartisan Operation Warp Speed initiative. This collaborative approach would elevate the urgency of the fentanyl crisis, pool public and private expertise as well as avoid duplication of federal programs and resources.

Sparian would also urge the Committee to consider making targeted investments in bolstering the nation’s SUD workforce. As the Committee knows well from the work of its Bipartisan Medicare GME Working Group, the U.S. has looming shortages of crucial healthcare roles.⁸ The nation’s SUD workforce, however, is already experiencing such shortages, which will only get worse. The American Society of Addiction Medicine, for instance, recently found the U.S. has about 4,400 physicians certified in addiction medicine, but this falls short of 6,000 currently needed.⁹ These shortages disproportionately affect medically underserved and rural communities. To alleviate these SUD workforce challenges, Sparian would encourage the Committee to direct Medicare to set-aside additional residency slots for addiction medicine, expand the National Health Service Corp’s SUD loan repayment program, among other initiatives.

Thank you for the opportunity to share Sparian’s perspective. Sparian Biosciences shares your mission of ending the fentanyl crisis that has claimed far too many lives and hurt millions of American families from every walk of life.

References

1. List of Public Health Emergency Declarations (hhs.gov)
2. 0523_wyden_statement.pdf (senate.gov)
3. NIH Heal Initiative 2024 Annual Report: Research in Action
4. 0523_crapo_statement.pdf (senate.gov)
5. 0523_crapo_statement.pdf (senate.gov)
6. 0523_wyden_statement.pdf (senate.gov) 
7. 0523_crapo_statement.pdf (senate.gov)
8. GME Outline (senate.gov)
9. asam-training-demo-one-pagerb1ff289472bc604ca5b7ff000030b21a.pdf