Merck’s Anti-Nausea Drug Emend Approved

Merck said Tuesday it has been approved to sell Emend to prevent postoperative nausea and vomiting.

The drug is best used for surgery patients in a single 40-mg dose within three hours prior to administering anesthesia, the company said.

Emend — a member of the drug class P/neurokinin 1 receptor antagonists — is the first in its class approved to treat post-surgery nausea and vomiting in 10 years, Merck said.

The treatment is thought to work by blocking nausea and vomiting signals to the brain compared to conventional therapies like GlaxoSmithKline’s Zofran that mainly block vomiting signals in the gut, the company said.

Merck said it compared Emend with Zofran in 1,658 patients undergoing open abdominal surgery. Of the patients receiving Emend 40 mg one to three hours before anesthesia, 84 percent of patients did not experience vomiting through 24 hours compared to 71 percent of patients given Zofran at a 4 mg intravenous dose immediately before anesthesia.