Dec 04, 2025
3 min read
ARR Sciences of New York is launching a vaccine in the Netherlands to prevent fentanyl-related overdoses and deaths.
A small amount of fentanyl, equivalent to a few grains of sand, is enough to stop a person breathing.The synthetic opioid is tasteless, odorless and invisible when mixed with other substances, and drug users are often unaware of its presence.
That's why biotech entrepreneur Colin Gage aims to protect people from the deadly effects of drugs.In 2023, he was the co-founder and CEO of ARMR Sciences to develop a vaccine against fentanyl.Now, the company is starting a trial to test its vaccine in humans for the first time.Goal: Prevent overdose deaths.
"It became very apparent to me that when I assessed the landscape of care, everything that exists is reactionary," Gage says.“I thought, why don't we stop it?
Fifty times more powerful than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine, fentanyl was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1968 as an intravenous pain reliever and anesthetic.Even then its potential for abuse was recognized, and doctors could only administer it in combination with the sedative droperidol in a 50:1 ratio of droperidol to fentanyl.
Cheaper to manufacture and more potent, fentanyl is now found in street drugs and counterfeit pills because it adds to their lower and lower costs.The drug is the leading cause of overdose deaths in the United States and the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 45.
Naloxone, known by the brand name Narcan, can quickly reverse overdoses caused by fentanyl and other opioids.24 Widespread distribution of the drug could contribute to a 24 percent decrease in drug overdose deaths in the United States by 2024. It works by attaching to opioid receptors in the body and displacing the opioid molecules there.
But a vaccine such as One Armor Sciences is developing would be given before a person comes into contact with the drug.Gage writes a bulletproof vest or military suit - hence the company's name.(It was previously registered as ovax but changed names in January.)
An opioid vaccine was initially proposed in the 1970s, but after initial attempts at a heroin vaccine failed, most research was halted.The modern opioid epidemic has led to a resurgence of interest with support from the US government.
ARMR's experimental vaccine is designed to neutralize fentanyl in the bloodstream before it reaches the brain.Fentanyl from the brain would prevent the respiratory failure associated with overdose, which leads to death, as well as the euphoric rush people feel when taking fentanyl.
The basic idea behind the Armr injection is the same as any other vaccine.It trains the body's immune system to produce antibodies that recognize foreign invaders.- Used, already used in approved medical products.
If a vaccinated person is exposed to Fintaryl, antibodies in the blood will bind to the drug and prevent it from going to the brain.Normally, fat molecules can pass through the brain barrier easily, due to their small size.But the molecules attached to fentyanyl will be too big to pass.The result?There is no high and high standard.Anibody.Fentaniyl molecules will end up in chaos
The vaccine is based on work from the University of Houston, with colleagues at Tulane University designing an adjuvant made from E.coli bacteria to boost the immune response to the vaccine.In mice, the shot prevented 92 to 98 percent of fentanyl from entering the brain and prevented the drug's behavioral effects.The effect lasted for at least 20 weeks in the mice, which Gage believes could translate into a year of protection in humans.
"The big breakthrough in the last five or six years is the advancement of adjuvant technology that we can now use, which elicits an extremely strong immune system response," he says.
The ARMR Phase 1/2 study, scheduled to begin in early 2026, will enroll approximately 40 healthy adults at the Netherlands Center for Human Drug Research.The first part of the trial will evaluate the safety of the vaccine and determine the optimal dose.Volunteers will receive a series of two injections at different doses, and researchers will measure antibody levels in their blood.In the second part of the study, a small group of participants will be given medical-grade fentanyl so that researchers can study how effective the vaccine is in blocking its effects.Gage said the ARMR chose the Dutch site because of its experience researching naloxone and nalmefene, another drug that reverses opioid overdoses.
In this study, the company is testing an injectable vaccine, but is also considering an oral medication such as a Listerine strip for future trials.
Marco Pravetoni, founder and key scientific officers of counterbes theraputics, studied Opyer-acting muilonal antibody is more commercial in the election.Provide monthly protection against overdose. Here says the product is intended for high-risk patients, such as those in addiction recovery programs.The physician-based company is poised to begin an initial human trial in early 2026.
"We think a month of defense is pretty good for providing protection," said PraveToni.This would be similar to Vivitrol, a commercially available prescription injectable drug and used to prevent relapse in adult alcohol or opioid adults, lasting about a month.
In a matter related to the language of antibodies or not, whether it is a great gift of medicine, Andomians can wrap antibodies in a sufficient shell, allowing the brain.Bochmann Leukory, who is in the hospital on behalf of the Phenatan language, is an exquisite Dakan encounter, one of the science missions of Palton's children that is possible."It just affects a lot of internal organs," he said.
In addiction treatment, Levy says there's always a risk of patients trying to counteract the effects of prescribed opioid medications by taking high doses of opioids—which is extremely dangerous—but he says it's rare.
Levy and her colleagues conducted research on the acceptability of the fentanyl vaccine.He believes a large target group will be teenagers and young adults who may be accidentally exposed to fentanyl while using street drugs.People with opioid use disorder who are in active treatment would also be good candidates for vaccination.
He says, “overall, our experience is that people are going to like this.
Mike language, director of national domineering state stacks such as incite reduced cracking of ability, inheritors block the effects of other difficulties, and vaccinated individuals suffer.
In animal studies, the University of Houston research team found no alternatives to other common opioid-based pain relievers and medications such as buprenorphine, methadone, morphine or oxycodone.But the lack of crossover activity also has a downside.This means people can still overdose on other types of opioids and get high from them.
Gage knows the fentanyl vaccine isn't a perfect solution.Even if it worked, it wouldn't end the opioid epidemic or cure opioid addiction.It won't completely stop people from seeking drugs.But it may be another tool to help prevent deaths from overdose.
"We're trying to put innovation and new technology behind this problem," he said, "because I think we really need it."
