Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its non-opioid painkiller patch, ZTlido (lidocaine topical system) 1.8%.
ZTlido is indicated for the relief of pain associated with post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN), also referred to as post-shingles pain. ZTlido is a major advancement in analgesics because of its proprietary adhesion technology demonstrating 12-hour wear with efficient lidocaine delivery, even during exercise. ZTlido was designed to solve a problem that is commonly reported with transdermal/topical patches: they don’t stay on.
“Post herpetic neuralgia is a perfect example of why we have an opioid crisis,” William Pedranti, chief operating officer at the Sorrento subsidiary SCILEX told Reuters. “There’s no opioids that are approved by the FDA to treat PHN (but) the number 1 prescribed product first-line is an opioid.”
“Topical lidocaine is an important option for healthcare providers to have in their armamentarium for treating PHN, a difficult-to-treat neuropathic pain,” stated Dr. Jeff Gudin, Director, Pain Management and Palliative Care, Englewood Hospital and Medical Center. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guideline of non-opioid treatments for chronic pain recognizes topical lidocaine as an alternative first-line therapy. ZTlido now offers providers and patients this option.”
According to recent IMS data, more than 100 million prescription lidocaine patches were sold in the US in 2017. Sorrento intends to have Scilex complete the final steps necessary to commercial launch of ZTlido in the US with the objective to make the product commercially available to patients sometime in 2018.
ZTlido is comprised of a non-aqueous adhesive material containing 1.8% lidocaine, which is applied to a non-woven polyester felt backing and covered with a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film release liner. The release liner is perforated in the middle and removed prior to application to the skin. The size of the topical system is 10 cm × 14 cm x 0.08 cm thick. ZTlido is indicated for relief of pain associated with post-herpetic neuralgia. It should be applied only to intact skin.
The treatment’s approval puts the bandage-like patch into a market currently split between Endo International Plc’s Lidoderm, which has been on the market for nearly 20 years, and generic versions of that product.
ZTlido improves upon Lidoderm by offering better adhesion and delivers equivalent doses of the pain-relieving active ingredient, lidocaine, more effectively, the company said.
“We’re not saying that it (ZTlido) is a massively better product,” Raghuram Selvaraju, an analyst at H.C. Wainwright said. “It is an incrementally better product, which we believe, is going to be actively promoted.” Selvaraju expects U.S. sales of the drug to peak at $1.1 billion in 2025.