Biomarker & Intervention Discovery
Opioid Use Disorder
Pharmacologically actionable gene targets, therapeutic agents ranked by evidence tier, and active clinical trials.
US DALYs8.70MWHO GHE 2021 · all ages
Global DALYs18.09MWHO GHE 2021 · worldwide
US mortality109.5K deaths/yrWHO GHE 2021
Global mortality177.8K deaths/yrWHO GHE 2021 · worldwide
NIH funding$662MFY2025 · RCDC estimate
Funding levelUnderfunded
Spontaneous remissionSpontaneous recovery (without MOUD) in 20-30% of OUD patients over 10 years; but overdose mortality risk during active…
Best-intervention remissionBuprenorphine maintenance: 50-70% retention in treatment at 1 year vs <20% for placebo; naltrexone extended-release…
Gap sizeVery large — only 20% of people with OUD receive MOUD; massive unmet need
Primary barrieraccess/policy
Full remission profile →
Remission & chronicity
Spontaneous remission
Spontaneous recovery (without MOUD) in 20-30% of OUD patients over 10 years; but overdose mortality risk during active disorder is extreme (5-10 per 1000 person-years); relapse rate 90%+ in first year after discontinuing MOUD
Best-intervention remission
Buprenorphine maintenance: 50-70% retention in treatment at 1 year vs <20% for placebo; naltrexone extended-release (Vivitrol): comparable to buprenorphine when initiated; methadone: superior retention but restricted distribution; overdose mortality reduced 50-70% with any MOUD
Gap size
Very large — only 20% of people with OUD receive MOUD; massive unmet need
Primary barrier
access/policy
US eliminated the DEA X-waiver requirement for buprenorphine prescribing in December 2022 (a major policy win) but prescribing rates have increased slowly; stigma remains; methadone access restricted to OTPs (clinics); harm reduction infrastructure (fentanyl test strips, naloxone) still insufficiently deployed; 80% of people with OUD receive no treatment
Biomarker Targets & Therapeutic Agents
Gene targets queried against DGIdb, Open Targets, ChEMBL, PubMed, and Europe PMC.
Agents ranked: ● Clinical >
● Mechanistic >
● Correlative.
Pipeline results not yet available. Run: python -m biomarker_pipeline.run_for_diseases --skip-llm
Clinical Trials
Recruiting and recently completed trials from ClinicalTrials.gov.
Data retrieved 2026-07-06.
No recent clinical trials found on ClinicalTrials.gov for this condition.
Agents Found By Disease-Level Search
Searched directly from “Opioid Use Disorder” via ClinicalTrials.gov interventions and Open Targets'
disease→drug data — independent of the 0-gene target panel above.
This surfaces agents whose mechanism doesn't route through a curated gene (combination
therapies, standard-of-care drugs, targets outside the panel).
Not yet run. python -m biomarker_pipeline.run_disease_agent_discovery --disease "..."