Express New Pain Relief Mechanism, Vertex's Ion Channel Inhibitor Obtained Phase 2 Clinical Proof of Concept

▎WuXi AppTec content team editors Today, Vertex Pharmaceuticals announced that its investigational selective NaV1.
8 channel inhibitor VX-548 has two Phase 2 proofs of concept in the treatment of acute pain after abdominoplasty or bunionectomy Positive results in clinical trials
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High-dose VX-548 treatment resulted in a rapid, statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in the primary endpoint of pain compared to placebo
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Based on these positive results, Vertex plans to advance the pivotal clinical development of VX-548 in the second half of this year, following discussions with regulatory agencies
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VX-548 is an oral selective inhibitor of NaV1.
8, which is highly selective for NaV1.
8 compared to other NaV ion channels
.

NaV1.
8 is a voltage-gated sodium channel that plays a key role in pain signaling in the peripheral nervous system
.

It is a genetically validated pain treatment target
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Vertex's strategy is to selectively inhibit NaV1.
8 to develop new types of drugs that may offer better pain relief than opioids while avoiding side effects such as addiction
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In a Phase 2 clinical trial in abdominoplasty patients, VX-548 met the primary endpoint, with a statistically significant increase in pain score SPID48 in patients treated with high doses of VX-548 compared to placebo
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The higher the SPID48 score, the better the pain relief effect
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Please see the figure below for specific data
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Image source: Reference [1] In a phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of bunionectomy, high-dose VX-548 achieved similar efficacy and significantly improved patients' SPID48 scores
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Image source: Reference [1] In terms of safety, VX-548 is well tolerated, and there are no serious adverse events related to VX-548
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Dr.
Carmen Bozic, Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President, Global Pharmaceutical Development and Medical Affairs, Vertex, said: "VX-548 demonstrated excellent consistency in efficacy, safety and tolerability across the two trials
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Potential for a potential 'first-in-class' non-opioid pain relief therapy
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We are accelerating this program into Phase 3 clinical development with the goal of delivering the first innovative pain relief therapy in decades to address an unmet patient need
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" Reference Source: [1] Vertex Announces Statistically Significant and Clinically Meaningful Results From Two Phase 2 Proof-of-Concept Studies of VX-548 for the Treatment of Acute Pain.
Retrieved March 31, 2022, from https://news.
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com /press-release/vertex-announces-statistically-significant-and-clinically-meaningful-results-twoDisclaimer: The WuXi AppTec content team focuses on introducing global biomedical health research progress
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