Organon's sugammadex gets enthusiastic review

Organon, the human health care business of the Dutch Akzo Nobel group, says that a review of its selective relaxant binding agent sugammadex, currently in Phase III development, is featured in this month's edition of the journal Anaesthesia and Analgesia.

The article contains a discussion of the drug by renowned anesthesiologists, Ronald Miller and Mohamed Naguib, who described it as one of the most exciting drugs to enter the field in many years. Prof Miller went on to say that the drug's neuromuscular pharmacology is well defined, and that it has the potential to change the practice of anesthesia, but added that large-scale studies were required to determine whether it has minimal or no adverse effects.

This view was echoed by Prof Nagib, who said that the product was able to reverse the deep levels of neuromuscular relaxation conferred by rocuronium, and was therefore capable of making surgical care easier and safer. He added that the drug has considerable potential in addressing the problem of postoperative residual neuromuscular blockade that is often suffered by patients following anesthesia.