An oral nonopioid analgesic is often sufficient for acute treatment of mild to moderate migraine pain without severe nausea or vomiting. A triptan is the drug of choice for treatment of moderate to severe migraine in most patients without vascular disease. Treatment of pain when it is still mild to moderate in intensity improves headache response and reduces the risk of recurrence.

Brexucabtagene autoleucel (Tecartus – Kite) has been approved by the FDA for treatment of adults with relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). It was previously approved for treatment of relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma. Tecartus is an individualized cellular product prepared from the patients own T cells, which are genetically modified to express chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) and then infused back into the patient. The CAR T-cell immunotherapy tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) was approved in 2017 for treatment of relapsed or refractory...

The sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor dapagliflozin (Farxiga – AstraZeneca) was approved by the FDA in 2020 to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death and hospitalization for heart failure (HF) in adults with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). The indication has now been expanded to include a reduction in the risk of urgent HF visits and use in adults with any left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF).

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is prevalent in 0.5% of adults in the US; it is about 2.5 times more common in women than in men. Guidelines for treatment of RA from the American College of Rheumatology were recently updated. The goal of treatment is to minimize disease activity and prevent irreversible joint damage.

Opioid use disorder is a chronic, relapsing disease with physical and psychiatric components. It is associated with economic hardship, social isolation, incarceration, increased rates of blood-borne infections such as HIV and viral hepatitis, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and increased mortality. According to the NIH, there were 80,411 deaths involving an opioid in the US in 2021, more than in any previous year. Several guidelines on the management of opioid use disorder are available; all recommend maintenance pharmacotherapy as the standard of care.

View the Expanded Table: Some Oral Drugs for Chronic Insomnia

The FDA has approved Ryaltris (Hikma), a fixed-dose combination nasal spray containing the H1-antihistamine olopatadine hydrochloride (Patanase, and generics) and the corticosteroid mometasone furoate (Nasonex 24 HR Allergy, and generics), for treatment of seasonal allergic rhinitis symptoms in persons ≥12 years old. Ryaltris is the second intranasal antihistamine/corticosteroid combination to be approved for this indication; azelastine 0.1%/fluticasone propionate (Dymista, and generics), which is approved for use in persons ≥6 years old, was the first. Both products are available...

The FDA has approved tremelimumab-actl (Imjudo – AstraZeneca), a cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) blocking antibody, for use in combination with the programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) blocking antibody durvalumab (Imfinzi) and platinum-based chemotherapy for treatment of metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in adults with no sensitizing epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations or anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) genomic tumor aberrations.

The FDA has approved the nitrofuran antiprotozoal drug nifurtimox (Lampit – Bayer) for treatment of Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis) in children who weigh ≥2.5 kg. Nifurtimox was previously available in the US only through a CDC-sponsored Investigational New Drug (IND) program.

View the Comparison Table: Some Nonopioid Analgesics for Pain