An indication hangs in front of the world headquarters of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston on Oct. 23, 2019.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
Shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals jumped Wednesday after the corporate’s painkiller, which is being tested as a substitute for opioids, significantly decreased pain in a midstage trial.
Those positive results for diabetes patients affected by a chronic nerve condition support the biotech company’s hopes to develop a drug that may provide strong pain relief without the addictive potential of opioids. Loads of other similar painkillers never reached the market.
Analysts have said that the painkiller, called VX-548, could change into a blockbuster drug if it wins approval from regulators, meaning its annual sales could exceed $1 billion.
Vertex said in a release that it’s “working with urgency” to advance the drug to a late-stage trial, which might bring it one step closer to winning approval from regulators.
Vertex can also be testing the medication in closely watched late-stage studies for acute pain, with data due in the primary quarter of next 12 months. Acute pain is brought on by injury, surgery, illness, trauma or painful medical procedures.
VX-548 has the potential to be a multibillion-dollar product for each acute pain and the chronic nerve pain in diabetes patients, Vertex executives said in a call Wednesday.
Vertex’s stock closed 13% higher following the discharge of the midstage trial data. Shares of the corporate are up nearly 40% this 12 months and got a lift last week after U.S. regulators approved the first-ever gene-editing therapy for sickle cell disease from Vertex and its partner CRISPR Therapeutics.
The phase-two trial tested the drug over 12 weeks in roughly 160 patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy, a long-term complication from diabetes that damages peripheral nerves, similar to those within the legs and arms, resulting from high blood sugar levels.
The condition could cause mild to debilitating pain, numbness and, in additional severe cases, issues with digestion, bladder and heart rate control. An estimated 50% of the roughly 40 million U.S. patients with diabetes have some peripheral neuropathy.
The trial specifically measured pain intensity using an 11-point scale, with 10 being the “worst pain conceivable.” High, mid and low doses of the drug reduced average pain intensity by 2.26, 2.11 and a pair of.18 points, respectively.
The corporate said the drug was generally well-tolerated, and that the vast majority of antagonistic events were mild or moderate.
The trial also followed a separate group of patients treated with pregabalin, a nonopioid therapy approved nearly twenty years ago to dam nerve pain and treat seizures. Pregabalin reduced average pain intensity by 2.09 points over 12 weeks.
JPMorgan analyst Jessica Fye said investors likely desired to see Vertex’s painkiller show efficacy “no less than on part” with pregabalin, noting that Wednesday’s results “clearly support that.”
Fye also highlighted that patients appeared to have a neater time tolerating VX-548 in comparison with pregabalin within the trial. The speed of antagonistic events related to treatment with Vertex’s painkiller was lower than that of pregabalin, she noted.
In a note Wednesday, Jefferies analyst Michael Yee wrote that the info overall “looks no less than pretty much as good as or higher than investor expectations.”
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