Carried and administered by Australian paramedics for decades, the green whistle pain reliever has been on the Australian market for years but clinical trials in Europe have now revealed Penthrox® to be a superior pain relief product than traditional treatments of morphine (IV), paracetamol, ketoprofen and NSAIDS. 

Marketed as Penthrox® with the key ingredient of Methoxyflurane, the green whistle is produced by Australian manufacturer Medical Developments International (ASX: MVP) which only started marketing the product to the United Kingdom in 2018. Since doing so, the company’s sales in Europe grew 401% in FY19. 

Whilst the product has already been in circulation across Europe, the latest round of clinical trials focused on the products efficacy in comparison to other pain relievers in the market where the non-opioid properties of Penthrox® have been gaining interest. 

“We are delighted with the results of these recent European clinical trials demonstrating superiority of Penthrox® over Standard of Care treatments (intravenous (IV) morphine, IV paracetamol, ketoprofen or NSAIDS) within the acute trauma setting,” said MVP CEO, John Sharman. 

“This reinforces the global potential for Penthrox® as a simple, fast and effective non-opioid pain medication.” 

The company currently has regulatory approval in 27 European nations with more in the pipeline but the biggest boost could come once approved in the United States, China and Russia which are major markets currently being pursued by MVP. 

Should MVP meet their regulatory requirements, the Company anticipates approval in the United States in the second-half of 2020 and China in 2021. 

Methoxyflurane had previously been produced in the United States by a different manufacturer but was withdrawn from the list of Food and Drug Administration approved products in 2005 when production ceased. Since then, we have seen the opioid epidemic boom in the United States which commenced in the late 1990s and contributed to more than 70,000 drug overdose deaths in 2018. 

Easily inhaled by trauma patients without the need for medical facilities, this latest round of clinical trials reported that Penthrox exceeded patient/clinician expectations.