Pain Relief and Tolerability Balance of Immediate Release Tapentadol or Oxycodone Treatment for Patients with Moderate to Severe Osteoarthritis or Low Back Pain

Purpose. Opioid treatment effectiveness may be best compared using definitions of treatment response, which combine measures assessing pain reduction and the occurrence of adverse events (AEs). This analysis of data from two phase III clinical trials was conducted to examine the pain relief and tolerability (PRT) balance of immediate release (IR) tapentadol and oxycodone in patients with moderate to severe osteoarthritis (OA) or low back pain. Methods. This was a post hoc analysis of two multicenter, randomized, double‐blind studies (10‐day and 90‐day) that evaluated the efficacy and safety of tapentadol IR in patients with moderate–severe OA pain. PRT was defined as adequate pain reduction (30% or 50% pain intensity improvement from baseline) and no gastrointestinal AE or other type of treatment‐emergent AE. The percentage of patients and mean number of days per patient meeting the PRT criteria were summarized. Results. In the 10‐day trial, the percentages of patients meeting PRT criteria (30% reduction) for both tapentadol groups were consistently above that for oxycodone 10 mg, although only significantly different for the 50 mg formulation. The mean number of days per patient meeting the PRT criteria was 3.7, 3.2, and 2.3 days for tapentadol 50 mg, 75 mg and oxycodone 10 mg, respectively. No significant difference between the groups was observed using the 50% pain reduction criterion. For the 90‐day trial, using multiple definitions, tapentadol IR showed a significantly higher proportion of days meeting PRT criteria. Conclusion. Pain reduction and tolerability are both important attributes of an effective analgesic treatment. Based on data from two trials, tapentadol IR produced an improved PRT balance compared with oxycodone IR.