Two years fol­low­ing US ap­proval, Japan's Sh­iono­gi wins EU green light for opi­oid con­sti­pa­tion drug

Near­ly two years af­ter win­ning US ap­proval for its opi­oid-in­duced con­sti­pa­tion drug, Japan’s Sh­iono­gi has se­cured the Eu­ro­pean nod for the treat­ment, naldeme­dine, in pa­tients that have been pre­vi­ous­ly treat­ed with a lax­a­tive.

The drug, to be sold un­der the brand name Riz­moic in Eu­rope, is an opi­oid an­tag­o­nist de­rived from nal­trex­one — a pre­scrip­tion med­i­cine main­ly used to treat al­co­hol and opi­oid de­pen­dence. Sh­iono­gi’s drug is de­signed such that it ex­erts its an­ti-con­sti­pat­ing ef­fects with­out re­vers­ing the anal­gesic im­pact of the opi­oid.

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