Adolor's Research and Development (R&D) team is a leader in the area of novel, opioid receptor-targeted therapeutics. Adolor scientists and clinicians work in collaboration with world-renowned experts and contract research organizations to discover and develop drug candidates to treat pain and manage the adverse side effects caused by currently available pain treatments.

Today, all marketed opioid analgesic drugs interact with the mu subtype of opioid receptors. Activation of these mu opioid receptors in the central nervous system (CNS) by opioid analgesics such as morphine is very effective in reducing pain perception. Despite the significant clinical benefit of these drugs, the use of morphine-like opioid analgesics is limited by their abuse potential, as well as the incidence of serious side effects such as sedation, decreased respiratory function and gastrointestinal (GI) complications, including postoperative ileus (POI) and opioid bowel dysfunction (OBD).

Hence, there remains a significant unmet medical need for potent analgesic medications with reduced side-effect liabilities, and for medications to manage the adverse side effects caused by currently available pain treatments.