Preventing Opioids from Countering the Benefits of Cancer Immunotherapies

Many cancer patients are prescribed opioids to manage pain associated with their disease, but studies have shown that the use of these pain killers naturally mutes the immune response and can reduce the efficacy of immunotherapies. Glycyx Therapeutics is developing a drug it believes can allow opioids to relieve pain while preventing them from working against immunotherapies. We spoke to Lorin Johnson, chief scientific officer of Glycyx Therapeutics, about the effect of opioids on the immune system, the company’s  experimental therapy designed to mitigate the negative effects of opioids in cancer patients being treated with checkpoint inhibitors, and why its drug in development may promote gut health in these patients more broadly.