MoxDuo® IV

Following surgery, many patients are not able to ingest oral medication and instead receive morphine intravenously. Intravenous (IV) dosing is accomplished by placing a cannula in a vein and by using a patient activated pump that allows the patient to self-administer repeated small doses of morphine. PCA morphine has been found to be a more efficient method for optimizing the amount of pain control achieved without over-dosing of patients than simply giving fixed doses of morphine every few hours by a nurse.

The advantage of PCA adjustable dosing is due to the fact that there is wide variation from one patient to the next in the amount of morphine needed to control pain and in the sensitivity of the patient to the side effects of morphine. Such side effects, including nausea, vomiting, mental sedation, impaired breathing and others can restrict a patient to low doses of morphine, thus resulting in inadequate pain control. Based on studies in animals and the promising results from the oral dosing of MoxDuo® IV in post-surgical patients who are able to ingest oral medication, we believe that IV and PCA dosing of MoxDuo IV may represent a further optimization of pain control, not only post-operatively but also in emergency rooms and in cancer pain management.

A clinical proof of concept study was initiated in 1Q09. It compares PCA dosing of MoxDuo IV (morphine:oxycodone) vs PCA morphine alone in patients with moderate to severe pain following hip surgery. If the outcome of this study shows benefits for MoxDuo IV vs morphine, then QRx will initiate a full development program for this indication.