Mundipharma demonstrates superiority of non-opioid Penthrox in relieving pain

At the European Society of Emergency Medicine Congress, UK-based Mundipharma announced positive results from various trials of its analgesic Penthrox (methoxyflurane) for pain relief. Carried out in Italy, the MEDITA study demonstrated Penthrox was superior to standard analgesic treatment (SAT) – IV morphine for severe pain and IV paracetamol or ketoprofen for moderate trauma pain – in terms of change in pain intensity over ten minutes, the primary endpoint. Penthrox was also rated as excellent, very good or good by significantly more patients and healthcare professionals than the SAT option. With 72.7% of patients giving one of these positive ratings for Penthrox, compared to 60.9% for the SAT group; while 90.3% of healthcare professionals gave Pethrox a positive rating, compared to 64.4% for the control group. In the placebo-controlled PenASAP study, which was conducted in France, Penthrox combined with the standard of care group experienced a median time of 35 minutes to pain relief, whereas placebo plus standard of care did not reach the definition of pain relief on the visual analogue scale.