Our mission is to improve the health of people suffering from opioid use disorder and/or chronic pain and reduce the public health impact of opioid addiction and overdose.
Opioid overdose, opioid use disorder, and chronic pain are intersecting health conditions responsible for significant morbidity and mortality.
Americans died of opioid overdoses each year in 2024 and 2025, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
Source: CDC/NCHS provisional mortality data, press release May 2026 (cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom)American adults reported having an opioid use disorder, and 8.9 million misused opioids in the past year (2023).
Source: CDC/NCHS Data Brief No. 544 (Dec 2025); SAMHSA 2023 NSDUHOf US adults had chronic pain in 2023, and 8.5% had “high-impact” chronic pain that frequently limited life or work.
Source: CDC/NCHS Data Brief No. 518 (Nov 2024)Despite knowledge among patients and prescribers regarding the risks of dependence and overdose, prescription opioids continue to be commonly prescribed in the US:
Our founding team brings together deep expertise in pharmacology, addiction medicine, and clinical drug development.
Dr. Briones earned her Ph.D. in Molecular and Medical Pharmacology from the University of California, Los Angeles, where her graduate work focused on pharmacokinetics, drug–drug interactions, and mechanisms of drug action. She has over 10 years of extensive research experience ranging from basic and pre-clinical research to translational science, clinical research, and clinical trials. Dr. Briones serves as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer and was Principal Investigator for our SBIR Phase 1 study.
Dr. DeYoung earned his M.D. from the University of Michigan and is board certified in Addiction Medicine, Psychiatry, and Family Medicine. He has over 5 years of experience working as a research physician on addiction-focused clinical trials for medication development. Dr. DeYoung treats a high volume of patients with co-occurring mental health issues and chronic pain. He serves as Chief Administrative Officer.
Dr. Heinzerling is board certified in Addiction Medicine and Internal Medicine and is an internationally recognized clinician researcher in addiction medicine, chronic pain, psychedelics, and pharmaceutical development. He has been involved in all aspects of pharmaceutical development, including Phase 1/2/3 clinical trials and planning for commercialization of multiple investigational products such as buprenorphine and multiple psychedelic compounds including psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, DMT, and 5-MeO-DMT. He is trained as a facilitator for psychedelic therapy and has researched and published on the design of set and setting for psychedelic clinical trials. He has extensive clinical experience treating patients with opioid use disorder and chronic pain. He serves as Chief Medical Officer.
BDH Pharma’s lead compound is a fixed-dose combination of buprenorphine and cannabidiol being developed for chronic pain and opioid use disorder indications.
We have formulated and prepared for GMP manufacturing BDH-001, our prototype fixed-dose combination buprenorphine + cannabidiol suspension for sublingual administration, to be used in upcoming Phase 1 clinical trials.
BDH-002 is our planned commercial product — a fixed-dose combination of buprenorphine and cannabidiol formulated as a sublingual tablet/strip.
BDH Pharma has received funding to support the clinical development of BDH-001 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Our lead compound has IP protection in the US, European nations, China, Australia, and is pending in Canada.
We have completed preclinical studies of buprenorphine and cannabidiol and found that in rodents, the addition of cannabidiol to buprenorphine increased analgesia, producing opioid-sparing effects. This was not due to any pharmacokinetic interaction between buprenorphine and cannabidiol. Cannabidiol also attenuated buprenorphine-induced respiratory depression in rodents. These results were published in the journal Cannabis & Cannabinoid Research.
📄 View the published research paper (PDF) Briones MS, DeYoung DZ, Heinzerling KG. Combination of Cannabidiol and Low-Dose Buprenorphine Suggests Synergistic Analgesia and Attenuates Buprenorphine-Induced Respiratory Depression. Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research. 2025;10(5):621–630. DOI: 10.1089/can.2025.0004A fixed-dose combination formulation has several advantages over administration of the components separately, especially in populations with opioid use disorder and/or chronic pain, to improve adherence rates and reduce diversion. The lower opioid doses in our product, resulting from the opioid-sparing effects, may reduce the risk of addiction and overdose that can occur with misuse and diversion of current full-dose opioid analgesics on the market.
For more information about our drug development programs or to explore possible collaborations, please complete the form below.
We welcome inquiries from investors, research partners, clinicians, and prospective collaborators.