Alpharma says Kadian capsules effective for arthritis, fibromyalgia patients

By Elaine Rigoli

Tampa, Fla., May 4 - Alpharma Branded Products Division, Inc. (formerly known as Faulding Laboratories, Inc.) said Thursday that Kadian, a slow-release form of morphine, improves pain scores and pain symptoms in arthritis and fibromyalgia syndrome patients to the same degree as patients with other moderate-to-severe chronic non-malignant pain states.

"Opioid use in this patient population may be considered after first-line treatment has failed and these data further support this conclusion," study investigator Bruce Nicholson said in a news release.

"Kadian demonstrated efficacy and safety in these patient groups," he added.

In the first sub-analysis, patients whose moderate-to-severe chronic pain had been undertreated were given Kadian for four weeks.

These patients were compared with patients with other non-malignant pain states. Arthritis patients taking Kadian experienced a 25% improvement in pain scores and a 19% improvement in sleep scores, the release said.

In the second sub-analysis, Kadian significantly improved moderate-to-severe chronic pain symptoms in patients with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia syndrome who had been previously undertreated.

Eighty-one fibromyalgia syndrome patients who had participated in the larger study and used Kadian were compared with data on patients with other pain types after four weeks.

Patients began once-daily dosing, with dose adjustments after one or two weeks, and could switch to twice-daily dosing after two weeks, if needed.

Patients taking Kadian experienced a 24% improvement in pain scores and a 15% improvement in sleep scores.

Patients with fibromyalgia initially reported lower scores in their overall quality-of-life scales than those with non-malignant pain, but by week four both patient groups showed similar improvements in quality-of-life scales, the release said.

The data from the two supplemental analyses were presented at the 25th annual scientific meeting of the American Pain Society.

Alpharma Branded is a subsidiary of Fort Lee, N.J.-based Alpharma, Inc., a global specialty pharmaceutical company.

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