Pain
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.
The regulator has approved Eyenovia and Formosa’s ophthalmic clobetasol propionate solution to ease eye inflammation and pain after surgery, with a potential $1.3 billion market.
Two weeks after Vertex’s Phase III data for VX-548 reenergized the field, Latigo Biotherapeutics announced $135 million in Series A funds to push its own NaV1.8 inhibitor into Phase II.
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