Eisai drug ‘derived from snail venom’ launched in UK

Eisai has announced it has launched Prialt in the UK. Prialt is a new treatment for severe chronic pain derived from a manmade version of a venom found in a type of sea snail, Conus magus.

The Japanese company describes Prialt as a new alternative to opiates like morphine, which can have some undesirable side-effects. Its development can be traced back to studies of a sea snail that paralyses its prey by injecting a venom. The manmade version of the venom causes pain relief in humans by blocking N-type calcium channels in nerves that transmit pain signals, research suggests.

Prialt has been given orphan drug status and it is the first non-opioid intrathecal painkiller to be approved in Europe.

Dr Paul Hooper, managing director of Eisai UK, stated: “We are very pleased to launch this important medicine as it provides specialist healthcare professionals with another option for the management of some of their most difficult patients.”

Dr Karen Simpson, consultant in pain management at Leeds University Hospitals, added: “The impact of persistent pain on daily living is unimaginable to most people, and when it does not respond to first line treatments it is often devastating for the patients and their carers.”

“Prialt is allowing me to treat some patients for whom previously I had run out of options,” she concluded.

The drug is prescribed for patients where opiate-related drugs no longer control pain or where the side-effects become too severe, since Prialt can only be injected directly into the spine.

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