Pediapharm has been making its treatment for drooling available to Canadian children and adolescents with cerebral palsy and other neurological conditions.
Health Canada opened the door to Cuvposa’s (glycopyrrolate’s) distribution when it approved it in November 2017.
“Our sales force has been trained and is eager to communicate with health care providers and ultimately help children with cerebral palsy, many of whom are facing the burden of chronic severe drooling on a daily basis,” Richard Labelle, Pediapharm’s vice president of sales and marketing, said in a press release.
Cuvposa helps reduce drooling in children aged 3 to 18 years who have a neurologic condition.
The solution, which a patient drinks, targets the acetylcholine muscarinic receptors in salivary glands. By preventing the receptors’ activation, it reduces the amount of saliva the glands produce.
A Phase 3 clinical trial (NCT00491894) showed that Cuvposa improved the severe drooling of 75 percent of the 38 participants who took it three times a day for eight weeks.
Another finding was that 84 percent of the participants’ doctors and all of their parents and caregivers reported improvements.
The most common adverse effects of treatment were dry mouth, constipation, vomiting, flushing, and nasal congestion.
“Due to the limited treatment options available, sialorrhea [drooling] is an all-too-often poorly managed condition in pediatric patients suffering from neurologic disorders such as cerebral palsy,” said Dr. Pierre Marois, a children’s physiatrist at Montreal’s Ste-Justine Hospital. “Cuvposa is an important advancement in the treatment of chronic severe drooling in children with neurologic disorders.”
Estimates are that drooling affects 37 to 58 percent of children with cerebral palsy in different degrees of severity.
The condition is often underestimated, along with its health and social consequences, Marois said.
Excessive saliva production “has several impacts related to the overall health of children with cerebral palsy,” he said. These include difficulty swallowing and effects on patients’ “respiratory health, their socio-emotional development, and emotional and work overload for families and caregivers,” he said.