Pain-Free Living

Gout-Associated Hyperuricemia: FDA Approves New Drug

By Lisa Cantkier

Affecting more than 1.6 million people in the U.S., gout is a painful form of arthritis. It is caused by an excess of uric acid in the blood known as hyperuricemia. People with gout often experience severe pain and swelling of the joints.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just approved Zurampic, a new medication to help treat gout-associated hyperuricemia. The recommended dosage is 200 mg, once daily. This approved dose has been associated with a lower incidence of serious adverse events and has been considered safe. It is recommended Zurampic be used in combination with a xanthine oxidase inhibitor (XOI), a type of drug that reduces the body’s production of uric acid.

Zurampic’s ability to help treat gout-associated hyperuricemia is two-fold—first, it helps  reduce the body’s production of uric acid; second, it helps increase the kidney’s excretion of uric acid. It inhibits the kidney’s transporter proteins, which are involved in uric acid reabsorption. While most gout medications currently available decrease the body’s production of uric acid, Zurampic increases its excretion, which is a major difference.

According to the Arthritis Foundation, Zurampic is the first in a new class of drugs referred to as “selective uric acid reabsorption inhibitors” (SURIs) to be approved in the U.S.  It represents an important advance in treatment for people whose gout is not controlled by current medications, said Jasvinder Singh, M.D., a rheumatologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and an investigator in the Zurampic clinical trials.

“Controlling hyperuricemia is critical to the long-term treatment of gout,” said Badrul Chowdhury, M.D., director of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Rheumatology Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Zurampic provides a new treatment option for the millions of people who may develop gout over their lifetimes.”

For more information about Zurampic, click here: http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm478791.htm

Last Reviewed 01/04/16

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