Top of the morning to you, and a fine one it is. Clear blue skies and chilly breezes are wafting across the Pharmalot campus, where the official mascots are snoozing after foraging for their breakfast. This means we are free to focus on the matters at hand — rummaging through our to-do list and making cups of stimulation. Our choice today is blueberry cobbler. As always, we invite you to join us. Meanwhile, here is the latest menu of tidbits to help you get started yourself. We hope that your day is simply smashing and that you conquer the world. And of course, do keep in touch. We have adjusted our settings to accept postcards and telegrams. …
Vertex Pharmaceuticals disclosed that a closely watched drug, suzetrigine, reduced pain compared to baseline but did not outperform a placebo in a Phase 2 study, raising doubts about the medicine’s potential in the lucrative market for treating chronic pain, STAT tells us. The company said in a press release that it believes addressing variability among responses in placebo patients by better designing its clinical trials could allow suzetrigine to succeed in a future Phase 3 study. Researchers gave suzetrigine to 102 patients with lumbosacral radiculopathy (LSR), a condition in which compressed nerves in the spine lead to back and leg pain. The main goal was to reduce pain as measured by the numeric pain rating scale, which asks patients to rank pain from 0 (no pain) to 10 (the worst pain imaginable). Those patients saw their pain reduced by an average of 2.02 points. By that measure the study was a success. But Vertex also enrolled a group of 100 patients who received placebo. Those patients reported a 1.98-point pain reduction from baseline, which is statistically no different from the results in the patients who received the drug.
Most of the formularies run by some of the largest health plans in the U.S. generally provide “fair access” to 11 treatments for several serious diseases, although transparent coverage information is often lacking for some medicines, STAT writes, citing a new analysis. Almost uniformly, the 11 formularies made the drugs available fairly when judged on three criteria: eligibility based on clinical data, restrictions placed on prescribers, and step therapy, which requires patients to try other medicines before insurers approve a prescription. The formularies are run by health plans, pharmacy benefit managers, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. But only 81% of the formularies scored well on a fourth criterion: cost-sharing, which is the portion of expenses paid by insured individuals.
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