Embera Theuro Therapeutics is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing treatments for smoking cessation and other addictions.
Embera is a portfolio company of the Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program (EAP) based in Shreveport that prepares companies to present to members of investor funds. The program has worked with 135 companies to date.
In April, EAP revealed that Embera and eight other companies had received funding through the New Louisiana Angel Fund 1 (NLAF1), an angel capital fund organized by the Biomedical Research Foundation.
Embera has now received a $11.1 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The three-year grant will help the company further develop its novel addiction treatment (EMB-001) that targets specific and complementary brain functions that drive the craving and relapse associated with disorders such as cocaine and nicotine addiction.
The grant will get Embera through Phase 2 clinical trials over the next few years.
“We are delighted to receive this positive validation and support from NIDA for EMB-001, the leading product in clinical development for cocaine use disorder, for which there are currently no FDA-approved medications,” said Robert Linke, Chief Executive Officer of Embera.
Embera’s novel addiction treatment is based on the discoveries of LSU Health Shreveport professor Dr. Nicholas Goeders. “A culmination of about 30 years of research, Embera is an example of what supporting an ecosystem of startup business and biomedical research at LSU Health can yield,” said Dave Smith, Executive Director of Biomedical Research Foundation’s (BRF) Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program.