Morphine News and Research

Latest Morphine News and Research

Antidepressants can play a key role in relieving pain associated with OA

Antidepressants can play a key role in alleviating painful conditions like osteoarthritis and may result in fewer side effects than traditionally prescribed drug regimes, such as anti-inflammatories and opioids, according to a perspective paper published online ahead of print publication by the International Journal of Clinical Practice.

22 Mar 2012

Opioids may influence breast cancer survival

A new study in the April issue of Anesthesiology analyzed inherited (genetic) differences in how the body responds to its own morphine-like chemicals and pain-relieving opioid drugs, and whether they influence breast cancer survival. Preclinical animal studies have suggested that opioids may promote tumor growth.

22 Mar 2012

Acelrx fourth quarter net loss increases to $6.4 million

AcelRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative therapies for the treatment of acute and breakthrough pain, today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2011.

20 Mar 2012

QRxPharma, Actavis enter License and Option Agreement

QRxPharma Limited announced today execution of its License and Option Agreement with Actavis, Inc. which finalised the legal terms and conditions to commercialise MoxDuo IR in the US acute pain marketplace. The LOA completion follows a 20 December 2011 signing of a binding Letter of Intent secured by a US$6 million non-refundable upfront signing fee to QRxPharma.

19 Mar 2012

AT-1001 shows promise in treating drug addiction

In preclinical studies, researchers at SRI International and Astraea Therapeutics have recently evaluated the role of a new drug receptor target that shows promise for the treatment of drug addiction.

15 Mar 2012

The two sides of pain

"Pain is both a curse and a blessing", says Jürgen Sandkühler, Head of the Department of Neurophysiology at the Centre for Brain Research at the MedUni Vienna ahead of the international "Brain Awareness Week", being held from the 12th to the 16th of March. On the one hand, pain has an important protective function for humans.

14 Mar 2012

Veterans prescribed more opioid pain killers: Study

According to a new government study Morphine and similar powerful painkillers are sometimes prescribed to recent war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress along with physical pain. The study suggests that these vets are at high risk for drug and alcohol abuse, but they're two times more likely to get prescriptions for addictive painkillers than vets with only physical pain.

7 Mar 2012

AcelRx initiates ARX-01 Phase 3 study for treatment of post-operative pain

AcelRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative therapies for the treatment of acute and breakthrough pain, reported dosing of the first patient in a Phase 3 study for ARX-01, the Sufentanil NanoTab PCA System, its novel sublingual patient-controlled analgesia system.

6 Mar 2012

Scripps Florida study to focus on four new classes of pain-relieving compounds

Scripps Florida scientists have been awarded $3.1 million by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health, to study and develop several new compounds that could prove to be effective in controlling pain without the unwanted side effects common with opiate drugs, such as morphine, Oxycontin, and Vicoden.

1 Mar 2012

News briefs from featured presentations at Cardiology 2012

Pediatric cardiology researchers and clinicians from almost 50 centers from across the U.S. and around the world are gathering at the Cardiology 2012 Conference sponsored by The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia on Feb. 22-26 in Orlando, Fla.

27 Feb 2012

Modified imatinib cancer drug prevents morphine tolerance in rats

By reformulating the common cancer drug imatinib (Gleevec), researchers have eliminated morphine tolerance in rats - an important step toward improving the effectiveness of chronic pain management in patients, according to researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

20 Feb 2012

Trevena commences TRV130 Phase I clinical trial for severe post-operative pain

Trevena, Inc., the leader in discovery and development of G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) biased ligands, announced today the initiation of a Phase I clinical trial of TRV130, a novel candidate designed for the intravenous treatment of moderate-to-severe post-operative pain.

13 Feb 2012

Medasys Prometra programmable implantable drug pump receives FDA PMA approval

Medasys Inc., a medical device company focused on providing implantable drug delivery solutions, announced today that it has received PMA approval from the U. S. Food and Drug Administration for its Prometra programmable implantable drug pump.

13 Feb 2012

Bupivacaine may effectively manage pain after total knee replacement

Researchers at the Rothman Institute at Jefferson have shown that local anesthesia delivered through a catheter in the joint, intraarticularly, may be more beneficial than traditional opioids such as morphine and Oxycontin for pain management following total knee replacement surgery.

10 Feb 2012

Mass. bill would mandate docs to check database before prescribing pain meds

The legislation is expected to come up for a vote in the Massachusetts Senate Thursday. In Florida, the legislature killed a bill to take away prescription rights from doctors awaiting trial on pill-trafficking charges.

2 Feb 2012

Takeda, SPI announce that lubiprostone phase 3 trial on OBD meets primary endpoint

Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc. announced today that lubiprostone met the primary endpoint in a phase 3 clinical trial for the treatment of opioid-induced bowel dysfunction (OBD) in patients with chronic, non-cancer pain, excluding those taking methadone.

2 Feb 2012

Continuous wound infusion with local anesthetic reduces pain after hip surgery

In patients undergoing hip replacement surgery, using a special wound catheter to infuse local anesthetic directly into the hip joint provides significant and lasting improvements in postoperative pain control, reports a study in the February issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society.

1 Feb 2012

Researchers discover previously unknown effect of opioids

A team of researchers at the MedUni Vienna's Department of Neurophysiology has discovered a previously unknown effect of opioids: the study, which has now been published in the highly respected magazine "Science" and was led by Ruth Drdla-Schutting and Jürgen Sandkühler, shows that opioids not only temporarily relieve pain, but at the right dose can also erase memory traces of pain in the spinal cord and therefore eliminate a key cause of chronic pain.

13 Jan 2012

Caltech researchers devise new method to make complex molecules

A team of researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has devised a new method for making complex molecules. The reaction they have come up with should enable chemists to synthesize new varieties of a whole subclass of organic compounds called nitrogen-containing heterocycles, thus opening up new avenues for the development of novel pharmaceuticals and natural products ranging from chemotherapeutic compounds to bioactive plant materials such as morphine.

12 Jan 2012

Powerful painkiller on its way to the market: Experts worry about addiction woes

Drug makers are on their way to a pure, more powerful version of the nation’s second most-abused medicine, which has addiction experts worried that it could spur a new wave of abuse. The new pills contain the highly addictive painkiller hydrocodone, packing up to 10 times the amount of the drug as existing medications such as Vicodin.

28 Dec 2011