Pain medication Lyrica failed to treat neuropathic pain: Pfizer

Lyrica, or pregabalin capsules CV, is a blockbuster pain drug of Pfizer. According to Reuters, it produced more or less $1.22 billion in its third quarter's sales. This is a strong proof of how popular and saleable the drug is.

The medicine has already been approved for treating epilepsy, fibromyalgia, neuropathic pain and generalized anxiety disorder.

It was already on its third phase of study, intended for determining its effectiveness in treating chronic post-traumatic peripheral neuropathic pain, when it did not meet its efficacy endpoint.

The study was designed to be a 15-week and double-blind study where placebo will be used for observing and controlling the results.

According to Pfizer, the primary objective of the double-blind and randomized study was to determine the efficacy and safety of the drug in comparison with placebo in term's o the effect's durability in treating or reducing the pain in line with PHN. The participants of the study were the patients who have positive respond to their single-blind study.

The outcome of the third phase of the study shows that the drug is consistent when it comes to its result to the illnesses that it is intended to cure. On the other hand, it shows most common problems in dizziness, fatigue, somnolence and nausea.

The study was composed of four phases. They have already done the first phase, which is the baseline. The second phase, which is the single-blind, was also completed. The third phase, the 13-week double-blind, resulted in a failure.

The Nasdaq reported that as of now, there is still no known post-traumatic neuropathic pain cure that has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

According to Patient.net, the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) defines neuropathic pain as pain associated with any disease or lesion that affects the person's somatosensory system.

Most often than not, patients who have this describe the pain as something similar to electric shock, shooting pain or burning sensation.

This kind of pain is often experienced by patients who underwent surgery. Between 10 percent and 50 percent of all the patients who had surgery experience neuropathic pain. The pain is severe for other patients. However, severe pain is rare, affecting only two to ten percent of the patients who suffer from neuropathic pain.

Now that Pfizer's Lyrica failed to succeed in proving its efficiency in treating the pain, the world still has to wait long again until an effective cure comes up.