You soon might have a new opioid choice for the treatment of moderate to severe acute pain, a combination of morphine and oxycodone called MoxDuo IR that moved a step closer to regulatory approval yesterday when QRx Pharma filed a New Drug Application with the FDA.

MoxDuo IR is an immediate-release dual opioid pain therapy, a 3:2 fixed ratio combination of morphine and oxycodone. It has successfully completed multiple comparative studies evaluating its efficacy and safety against equianalgesic doses of morphine, oxycodone and Percocet for the treatment of acute pain.

Study results consistently demonstrate MoxDuo IR's greater overall tolerability, achieving as good or better pain relief with substantially fewer incidences of moderate to severe side effects, notably a clinically significant reduction in respiratory depression, says QRx Pharma.