BIDDEFORD — The University of New England and the Southern Research Institute of Birmingham, Alabama recently won a five-year, $4.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop opioid drugs for the treatment of chronic pain, according to a recent UNE press release.

These candidate compounds are being developed to have fewer adverse effects than currently marketed opioid pain-relief medications.

Chronic pain affects an estimated 100 million Americans, the release states, and the economic burden of chronic pain in the U.S. was recently estimated at approximately $600 billion per year – greater than the combined annual cost of cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

Opioids, such as hydrocodone, oxycodone, morphine and codeine, are currently the most useful treatments available for moderate to severe acute and chronic pain, but their therapeutic use is limited due to their tendency to produce adverse side effects, according to the release. With longer-term use, there is also potential for abuse and addiction.

The research will be performed by a team of scientists at UNE, including Edward Bilsky, Ph.D., vice president of Research and Scholarship, Karen Houseknecht, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology, and John Streicher, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical sciences. Subramaniam Ananthan, Ph.D., principal research scientist in drug discovery at the Southern Research Institute, will lead the research.