Pain
The acquisition of SiteOne provides a bit of diversification for Lilly, which has burrowed into the obesity and diabetes space with mega-blockbuster tirzepatide and several follow-on molecules.
Vertex has recorded some 25,000 prescriptions for Journavx since its January approval and is in the process of getting big PBMs to cover the non-opioid pain drug.
The Supreme Court last year blocked a previous settlement proposal from Purdue, arguing that the plan would afford the Sackler family too much protection.
Despite not differentiating itself from placebo, the Texas-based company said it plans to push pilavapadin into Phase III trials before long.
Non-opioid pain therapies are entering an unprecedented era, marked by the landmark FDA approval of Vertex’s Journavx and a growing number of alternative approaches. Their ultimate uptake, however, remains to be seen.
AlgoTherapeutix blames a “strong placebo effect” for the mid-stage failure for its pain gel ATX01, but the company still believes in the promise of its candidate as Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ first-in-class drug Journavx opens up the non-opioid space.
Vertex expects to make the newly approved non-opioid pain medicine Journavx available by the end of February.
If the attention generated by BioSpace’s coverage of this landmark approval is any indication, Americans are hungry for non-opioid pain treatments that could help quell the still raging opioid epidemic.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s HHS nomination moves to a full Senate vote; Donald Trump’s tariff war sparks China-related concerns for biopharma; Pfizer, Merck and more announce Q4 and 2024 earnings; and the non-opioid painkiller space heats up as FDA approves Vertex’s Jounavx.
The Phase IIa results continue a surge of momentum in a treatment space that last week saw the approval of Vertex’s Journavx as the first novel mechanism for acute pain in decades.
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