MSD highlights Emend for Injection as providing new treatment option

Merck, Sharp and Dohme (MSD) has highlighted that its intravenous therapy Emend for Injection (fosaprepitant dimeglumine) can provide a new treatment option for patients undergoing chemotherapy.

The oral formulation Emend (aprepitant) is indicated for use in combination with other antiemetics for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV).

Emend for Injection is an intravenious prodrug of the oral formulation aprepitant which means that when it is administered, fosaprepitant is rapidly converted in the body to aprepitant.

This week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of Emend for Injection in combination with other antiemetics medicines for the prevention of acute nausea and vomiting associated with initial and repeat courses of cancer chemotherapy.

The FDA’s approval arrives following a study which showed that 115mg of Emend for Injection was biologically equivalent to 125mg of the oral formulation Emend.

Lee Schwartzberg, clinical oncologist and professor of medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Centre, commented: “Nausea and vomiting are among the top concerns that people have when they receive chemotherapy and, to an oncologist, are very important to control.”

Earlier this month, MSD signed a deal to make a generic form of Fosamax (alendronate sodium) available to patients when its patent expires on the compound.