Side effects from chemotherapy can be exhausting for patients.
One of the most common side effects is nausea. For patients who deal with this unpleasant symptom, a new therapy is now available from Merck, a New York-based pharmaceutical company.
Emend, a single-dose, injectable medication, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help quell delayed nausea and vomiting in adult patients undergoing their first or repeat courses of moderately emetogenic chemotherapy (MEC).
“Despite significant advances in supportive care, nausea and vomiting has (sic) remained a challenge for many cancer patients undergoing moderately emetogenic chemotherapy – and has historically required multi-day antiemetic therapy,” Stuart Green, vice president for clinical research at Merck Research Laboratories, said. “(The) approval of an expanded indication for Emend for injection means that physicians now have a new single-dose intravenous option, combined with other anti-vomiting medicines, for the prevention of delayed nausea and vomiting in these patients.”
Emend is a P/neurokinin-1 (NK1) receptor antagonist -- the first drug of its kind to be approved in the U.S. -- that is used in combination with other antiemetic medicines. It was the subject of a Phase III study that showed patients given Emend in combination with other anti-vomiting medicines experienced less episodes of nausea and vomiting than those who received the other drugs alone.
