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Articles

Zepbound from Eli Lilly is the first and only prescription medicine approved by the FDA for adults with obstructive sleep apnea and obesity.

FDA Approves Tirzepatide for Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Patients with Obesity

Authors concluded that that the benefit of the vaccine in preventing long COVID is due mainly to the fact it mitigates the risk of infection.

Pfizer Vaccine Reduces Risk of Long COVID in Pediatric Patients

Lauren Biscaldi is the Managing Editor of Drug Topics. 

Although the drug fell short of its 25% expected weight loss, results are still promising for people with overweight or obesity. 

CagriSema Demonstrates Statistically Significant, Superior Weight Loss Vs Placebo

With pressure from the House GOP, expected PBM reform was not included in Congress’ end-of-year spending package.

PBM Reform Pulled Back in Late Change to Spending Package

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Clinical

ATX101 from Allay Therapeutics is designed for use following total knee arthroplasty in adults and has shown positive results in multiple studies.

Post-Surgical Pain Treatment Gains FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation

Most patients with reduced opioid prescriptions during cannabis use had chronic musculoskeletal pain.

Cannabis Could Help Reduce Opioid Use in Patients with Chronic Pain

Catch up on important nonopioid pain management news from November 2024.

Nonopioid Pain Management Roundup: Osteoarthritis Treatments, Chronic Pain in Veterans 

A number of new, nonopioid osteoarthritis treatment options are either available for patients or in the development pipeline. 

Exploring New Osteoarthritis Treatment Options | ACR Convergence

NSAIDS are typically the first line of treatment for axial spondyloarthritis.

No Association Between High-Dose NSAIDs, Hypertension in axSpA | ACR Convergence

Albert Dahan, MD, PhD, talks about the first-in-class dual-NMR agonist cebranopadol.

Could an Investigational Therapy Help Fill the Gap in Pain Management?

In the field of pain management, there are many gaps that continue to exist and adequate pain management is often not achieved. When pain is not sufficiently managed, it can lead to negative long-term effects on a patient’s physiological and psychological health.

 Higher pain intensity and frequency can also develop into chronic pain, which currently impacts around 20% of adults in the United States.

Opioids have been considered an essential medication for pain management, but they do carry significant risk. Research has shown that there is a lack of data to support long-term benefits of opioids for chronic pain.

 That data also showed that long-term use of prescribed opioids put patients at a higher risk of overdose and opioid misuse. This is why other medications that do not carry the risk of severe side effects are needed.

Tris Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company working on drug development for ADHD, pain and addiction, recently presented data from a clinical study on cebranopadol, a first-in-class dual-NMR agonist that targets the nociceptin/orphanin FQ receptor and the µ-opioid receptor. Data showed that the therapy produces potent and prolonged analgesia with 25% less respiratory depression than oxycodone.

 The company believes cebranopadol could be a “potentially transformational new pain therapy.”

 recently talked with Albert Dahan, MD, PhD, professor of anesthesiology at Leiden University Medical Center and a researcher on the cebranopadol study, about what cebranopadol is and how it’s different from traditional opioids, how it will fit into the broader landscape of pain management therapies, current gaps that exist in pain management and how the therapy might help address them, and what the next steps are for cebranopadol.

“I’m writing currently a paper on psychedelics and pain management,” Dahan said. “People use that. Why do they use that? Psychedelics are not at all drugs that you would like to use because they have psychedelic side effects: disassociation, hallucinations. The reason is, we don’t have drugs that are safe. We don’t have drugs that allow the patient to experience profound pain relief without side effects. People except these side effects because they think they’re safe…I really believe—I’ve done 2 studies [on cebranopadol] that were both quite good—that we’re reaching an area that is very interesting.”

1. Varsi C, Ledel Solem IK, Eide H, et al. Health care providers' experiences of pain management and attitudes towards digitally supported self-management interventions for chronic pain: a qualitative study. BMC Health Serv Res. 2021 Mar 25;21(1):275. doi: 10.1186/s12913-021-06278-7. PMID: 33766028; PMCID: PMC7992849.

2. Rikard SM, Strahan AE, Schmit KM, et al. Chronic Pain Among Adults — United States, 2019–2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2023;72:379–385. DOI: 

3. Dowell D, Ragan KR, Jones CM, Baldwin GT, Chou R. CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain 

 United States, 2022. MMWR Recomm Rep 2022;71(No. RR-3):1–95. DOI: 

4. Findings Presented at PAINWeek 2024 Demonstrate Tris Pharma’s Investigational, First-in-Class Therapy Cebranopadol Provides Potent, Prolonged Pain Relief with Improved Safety Over Oxycodone. News Release. Tris Pharma. September 3, 2024. Accessed September 12, 2024.

Videos

Albert Dahan, MD, PhD, professor of anesthesiology at Leiden University Medical Center, talks about the first-in-class dual-NMR agonist cebranopadol.

Could an Investigational Therapy Help Fill the Gaps in Pain Management?

Nonopioid Pain Management

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