Boehringer Ingelheim announces duloxetine pain data

Boehringer Ingelheim has announced the presentation of new study data showing duloxetine maintains pain reduction for over six months in patients suffering from diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain (DPNP).

The results were presented at the 12th World Congress on Pain taking place this week in Glasgow, Scotland.

Boehringer Ingelheim said this study marks the first time the compound has been evaluated in this indication for longer than three months.

In total, 216 patients with DPNP were enrolled in the study and began eight weeks of treatment with 60 mg of the compound each day.

By the end of the study, pain reduction was maintained in 74.8 per cent of the sustained responder over the full period.

Vladimir Skljarevski, lead author of the study and a neurologist and medical fellow at Lilly Research Laboratories, said: “DPNP is a chronic, potentially disabling, condition requiring treatment over a long period of time.”

He added this study showed a reduction in pain with the compound over a six-moth period, the longest available data for the drug in DPNP patients.

In May 2007, Boehringer Ingelheim presented positive trial data in patients with depression who have not responded sufficiently to a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor switching to duloxetine hydrochloride.