24 Jun 2021
“We’re really excited to bring this product to market and the potential that it has to improve the lives of dogs living with OA” – James Beaumont, marketing manager, Animalcare.
James Westgate
Job Title
Animalcare has launched Daxocox (enflicoxib, a selective cyclooxygenase-2 [COX-2] inhibitor) – the first weekly oral NSAID.
Daxocox achieves significant improvement of clinical signs associated with the pain of OA in dogs1,2 and helps reduce the risk of breakthrough pain.
Breakthrough pain is defined as “an abrupt, short-lived and intense pain that breaks through the analgesia that controls pain”3.
Risk factors for breakthrough pain in cases of canine OA include poor owner compliance, variable plasma drug levels between doses, natural or exercise induced flare-ups and disease progression.
Vets estimate that nearly half of their canine OA cases on daily NSAIDs experience breakthrough pain3, with owner reports placing potential prevalence much higher, at 80%4.
Daxocox helps reduce the risk of breakthrough pain by providing consistent pain control with a single weekly dose, given at home by the owner. This is achieved thanks to its seven-day phasic pharmacology.
Therapeutic plasma levels are kept stable for seven days due to phases of slow formation, binding (to red blood cells and plasma proteins) and slow elimination of the active metabolite5.
This metabolite has COX-2 inhibitory action, and so the clinical effects also last for seven days. Meanwhile, the parent drug levels are reduced to basal levels before the next dose is due, so Daxocox can be given continually, with no risk of over-accumulation or need for mandatory treatment “breaks”5.
With adverse effects noted as no different from any other NSAID1,2 and no increase in treatment-related adverse effects at up to five times the recommended dose6, Daxocox has a broad margin of safety and is well tolerated by dogs6.
James Beaumont, marketing manager at Animalcare, said: “Daxocox’s weekly administration of a flavoured tablet addresses some of the challenges of managing canine OA that I’m certain most vets will identify with.
“Breakthrough pain is a real problem and by being able to provide consistent pain control, in a compliance-friendly formulation, Daxocox is a real game changer for canine OA management.”
