Griffin’s $50M Grant Will Create Pediatric Opioid Center at Arkansas Children’s

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin and Arkansas Children's President and CEO Marcy Doderer annoucing the $70 million National Pediatric Opioid Research Center. (Arkansas Children's)

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has awarded Arkansas Children’s $50 million to create a first-of-its-kind National Pediatric Opioid Research Center.

The money is a portion of $50 billion in settlement funds that pharmaceutical companies agreed to pay to state and local governments over the next two decades.

Griffin and executives from Arkansas Children’s announced the creation of the center Thursday.

“Today we are making history in the fight against opioid abuse in America,” Griffin said. “NCOR will be a game changer for our children. This research center will be the first of its kind not just in Arkansas, but in the entire country. It will put our state on the front line of saving future generations from the scourge of opioid addiction and on the map as the center for pediatric opioid research in the United States.”

Dr. Pete Mourani, president of the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute and senior vice president and chief research officer for ACH, will lead the initiative. Mourani will work with Dr. William Steinbach, who has led National Institute of Health-funded clinical care and research programs.

In a news release, Arkansas Children’s estimated the project will require $70 million in funding, with the health system providing money beyond the opioid settlement proceeds.

Plans call for construction to begin in 2024 on the 45,000-SF facility, which will be in the research corridor of the health system’s Little Rock campus, according to Children’s. Scientists will work closely with the ACRI and Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center, one of six National Human Nutrition Centers funded through the USDA-ARS.

“The opioid crisis has devastated Arkansas families, and we see the impact in our NICU, clinics and ER every day,” Arkansas Children’s President and CEO Marcy Doderer said. “By creating this center, we are accelerating a healthier future for the children of Arkansas.

“The brilliant capacity of the team already on the ground and those we will recruit will create a better today and healthier tomorrow for the unbelievable number of children who suffer in the opioid crisis’ wake.”

Griffin said NCOR’s mission will lead to “a better understanding of the impacts of the opioid crisis on unborn babies, newborns, and developing children.”

“It will also contribute to the development of evidence-based treatments, which will greatly improve health outcomes and help shape state and national policy,” Griffin said. “Establishing NCOR is an effective use of Arkansas’s opioid settlement funds because it is a long-term investment in work that will continue for decades to come — long after opioid settlement funds are gone.”

Research and training at NCOR will be shared at ACH regional locations and with other medical experts around the country, Griffin said.

According to Arkansas Children’s, opioids pose threats to child health across the U.S. and were recently discovered to be the leading cause of fatal poisoning in children 5 years old and younger.

A study published earlier this year in the journal Pediatrics also noted that over the past decade, children have been accidentally exposed to many new opioid sources beyond families’ stored prescriptions, including heroin and fentanyl.