Pain
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.
The approval of Axsome Therapeutics’ Symbravo for migraine with or without aura came alongside the greenlight for Vertex’s non-opioid treatment Journavx.
The greenlight for Journavx (suzetrigine), which comes on the heels of a $7.4 billion opioid settlement, could spark momentum in the fledgling non-opioid pain space.
Cebranopadol, a dual-NMR agonist, reached the primary endpoint in a Phase III trial and matched placebo for safety, a significant concern in the analgesic field.
Among the FDA’s pending decisions for this quarter are Vertex’s non-opioid pain drug and Sanofi’s RNA interference therapy for hemophilia A and B.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ investigational non-opioid analgesic suzetrigine failed to outperform placebo. Investors voiced their concerns as the company’s share price fell 13% in premarket trading.
The pharma is seeking full approval for its anticoagulation reversal drug Andexxa, which the FDA granted accelerated approval in 2018 for patients who had been treated with apixaban or rivaroxaban.
BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman in a note to investors said the late-stage data for Vertex’s experimental non-opioid pain medication “reaffirms our confidence in the strength of suzetrigine’s profile.” However, William Blair analysts view these data as “an incremental positive” as the company faces challenges in targeting the acute pain market.
The FDA will have six months to review Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ suzetrigine, potentially the first new class of drugs for acute pain in more than 20 years, according to the company.
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