Issn Print: 1742-8009

Publication Date: 2005/02/01


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Ziconotide licence for severe chronic pain: How a snail's venom has led to the development of a new analgesic

Peggy Eastman

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The FDA approval at the end of December of the non-opioid analgesic Prialt (ziconotide intrathecal infusion) for severe chronic pain underscores the importance and promise of natural sources such as the ocean, plant, and microbial worlds as valuable caches for new drugs, say US NCI officials.
The approval is considered especially good news for patients with intractable pain because it comes at a time when pharmaceutical development of new chemical entities is at a low ebb. It is also good news because, although Prialt is not for widespread use, it comes in the wake of the withdrawal of the painkilling COX-2 inhibitor rofecoxib.
Ziconotide, with FDA approval behind it now, is expected very soon on the US market; in Europe, however, it may take a little longer. Although the drug received a positive recommendation from the European Commission for Medicinal Products for Human Use in November, it has still to gain approval from the European Commission - this will probably take about another three months.
The drug is a synthetic version of a naturally occurring conopeptide venom found in the marine snail Conus magus. Research from Elan Corporation, the Irish company that developed the drug, indicates that it works via a new mechanism of action that targets and blocks N-type calcium channels on nerves that - if not blocked - transmit pain signals. It is thus the first NCCB - or N-type calcium channel blocker.
‘Ziconotide is a synthetic version of the naturally occurring conopeptide venom of the marine snail Conus magus.
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