Screening of investigational agents through the NINDS Pre-Clinical Screening platform for pain (PSPP)

The Preclinical Screening Platform for Pain (PSPP) is a program established by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) as part of the NIH HEAL Initiative® to accelerate the discovery of effective non-opioid, non-addictive therapies (small molecules, biologics, devices, or natural products) for acute and chronic pain. PsychoGenics serves as the PSPP contract testing site, conducting preclinical evaluations under NINDS direction. All testing is conducted in a randomized, blinded manner where both male and female animals are included and adhering to ARRIVE Guideline.

The program uses a staged, decision-based workflow designed to characterize an asset comprehensively rather than relying on efficacy in a single pain model. Evaluation includes in vitro pharmacology and safety/abuse-liability screening, pharmacokinetic, neurological and behavioral side-effect assessment, efficacy across validated pain models and endpoints, and in vivo abuse-liability testing. An important feature of PSPP is the use of clinically active reference compounds and negative controls to validate individual models, endpoints, and the overall screening workflow.