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VIDEO: Several new drug treatments benefit patients with IBS
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WASHINGTON — William D. Chey, MD, from the University of Michigan Health System discusses several abstracts he presented at DDW 2015 with data on new drug treatments for irritable bowel syndrome.
First he addresses an abstract on rifaximin (Xifaxan, Salix), “a nonabsorbable antibiotic that’s been found to be effective with a single short course of therapy for patients with IBS and diarrhea. The question that has been really open until the presentation of this study has been whether patients that develop recurrent IBS-D-related symptoms might get better with a repeat course of rifaximin, and the good news [is] this trial … found that around 10% more patients treated with rifaximin vs. placebo got better with a recurrent course of therapy.”
Next he discusses a new drug called eluxadoline (Viberzi, Actavis), a mu-opioid agonist and a delta-opioid antagonist in development for IBS-D. “I presented data from two large phase 3 randomized controlled trials, which demonstrate that eluxadoline provides significant benefits vs. placebo for patients with IBS and diarrhea.”
Finally, he discusses data on a new drug called tenapanor (Ardelyx), which “inhibits sodium absorption through this NHE3 channel, and in a large phase 2b trial was actually found to be more effective than placebo at improving stool frequency and abdominal pain in patients with constipation-predominant IBS.”
Disclosure: Chey reports various financial relationships with Ardelyx, AstraZeneca, Forest, Ironwood, My Total Health, Nestle, Prometheus, QOL Medical, Salix, Sucampo, Takeda and Vibrant.