Home Family Practice Tanezumab Improves Pain, Function in Chronic Low Back Pain

Tanezumab Improves Pain, Function in Chronic Low Back Pain

Low back pain intensity at week 16 was improved with tanezumab 10 mg versus placebo

MONDAY, June 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) — For patients with chronic low back pain, tanezumab 10 mg significantly improves pain and function, according to a study published online June 19 in PAIN.

John D. Markman, M.D., from the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, and colleagues conducted a randomized trial to examine tanezumab in patients with chronic low back pain and a history of inadequate response to standard-of-care analgesics. Patients were randomly assigned to placebo, subcutaneous tanezumab (5 or 10 mg every eight weeks), or oral tramadol prolonged-release (100 to 300 mg/day) for 56 weeks followed by 24-week safety follow-up.

The researchers found that tanezumab 10 mg met the primary end point of significant improvement in low back pain intensity at week 16 versus placebo (least squares mean difference, −0.40; 95 percent confidence interval, −0.76 to −0.04; P = 0.0281). All secondary end points improved significantly with tanezumab 10 mg. Tanezumab 5 mg did not meet the primary end point (treatment difference versus placebo, −0.30; 95 percent confidence interval, −0.66 to 0.07; P = 0.111), and secondary end points were not tested formally. The proportion of patients with ≥50 percent improvement in low back pain intensity at week 16 was 37.4, 43.3, and 46.3 percent in patients who received placebo, tanezumab 5 mg, and tanezumab 10 mg, respectively (odds ratios versus placebo, 1.28 [95 percent confidence interval, 0.97 to 1.70; P = 0.0846] and 1.45 [95 percent confidence interval, 1.09 to 1.91; P = 0.0101], respectively).

“This demonstration of efficacy is a major breakthrough in the global search to develop nonopioid treatments for chronic pain,” Markman said in a statement.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer and Eli Lilly, which manufacture tanezumab and funded the study.

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