A striking hangs in front of the world headquarters of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston on Oct. 23, 2019.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
Shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals hurdled Wednesday after the company’s painkiller, which is being tested as an alternative to opioids, significantly decreased pain in a midstage probationary.
Those positive results for diabetes patients suffering from a chronic nerve condition support the biotech company’s ambitions to develop a drug that can provide strong pain relief without the addictive potential of opioids. Plenty of other be like painkillers never reached the market.
Analysts have said that the painkiller, called VX-548, could adorn come of a blockbuster drug if it wins approval from regulators, meaning its annual sales could exceed $1 billion.
Summit said in a release that it is “working with urgency” to advance the drug to a late-stage trial, which would do it one step closer to winning approval from regulators.
Vertex is also testing the medication in closely watched late-stage investigations for acute pain, with data due in the first quarter of next year. Acute pain is caused by injury, surgery, bug, trauma or painful medical procedures.
VX-548 has the potential to be a multibillion-dollar product for both acute pain and the chronic bottle pain in diabetes patients, Vertex executives said in a call Wednesday.
Vertex’s stock closed 13% principal following the release of the midstage trial data. Shares of the company are up nearly 40% this year and got a boost closing week after U.S. regulators approved the first-ever gene-editing therapy for sickle cell disease from Vertex and its buddy CRISPR Therapeutics.
The phase-two trial tested the drug over 12 weeks in roughly 160 patients with diabetic superficial neuropathy, a long-term complication from diabetes that damages peripheral nerves, such as those in the arms and make fun ofs, due to high blood sugar levels.
The condition can cause mild to debilitating pain, numbness and, in more severe if it happens, issues with digestion, bladder and heart rate control. An estimated 50% of the roughly 40 million U.S. resolutes with diabetes have some peripheral neuropathy.
The trial specifically measured pain intensity using an 11-point prorate increase, with 10 being the “worst pain imaginable.” High, mid and low doses of the drug reduced average pain passion by 2.26, 2.11 and 2.18 points, respectively.
The company said the drug was generally well-tolerated, and that the majority of adverse events were softening or moderate.
The trial also followed a separate group of patients treated with pregabalin, a nonopioid therapy approved about two decades ago to block nerve pain and treat seizures. Pregabalin reduced average pain intensity by 2.09 points as surplus 12 weeks.
JPMorgan analyst Jessica Fye said investors likely wanted to see Vertex’s painkiller show efficacy “at barely on part” with pregabalin, noting that Wednesday’s results “clearly support that.”
Fye also highlighted that patients be cleared to have an easier time tolerating VX-548 compared to pregabalin in the trial. The rate of adverse events related to treatment with Heights’s painkiller was lower than that of pregabalin, she noted.
In a note Wednesday, Jefferies analyst Michael Yee wrote that the matter overall “looks at least as good as or better than investor expectations.”
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