Hey all, welcome back to the real-life pharmacology podcast. I'm your host pharmacist, Eric Christensen.

Thank you so much for listening today. On today's episode, I'm going to cover a new medication

that's been out within the last year here, and that is Venoprazan. Brand name is Vokezna.

And this medication is actually a potassium competitive acid blocker, sometimes referred to as

P-Cab as far as the class of these type of medications, which I believe Venoprazan is the only one currently available.

There may be more in the pipeline potentially being researched.

So, PCAB or Vanoprazan, or the class that it's from, the P-Cab class,

Venopra-Zrazan works by reducing basal and stimulated

gastric acid secretion from parietal cells.

So if you remember, parietal cells in the gut or the stomach, they are the ones that

basically pump out the acid and allow for the production

of acid for the stomach there.

So it inhibits the hydrogen-potassium ATPAs.

And that's essentially how it works in helping to relieve symptoms and promote healing in erosive esophagitis

as well as H.Pylori can be used for that as well.

Now, a couple of things with this medication first and foremost before you get too crazy excited.

It is very, very expensive just in searching online a little bit. I mean, you're probably looking at anywhere from $600 to $900 price range is what I've kind of seen online for a 30-day supply.

So obviously that's going to be a huge challenge compared to PPI's.

There is a little, there is some evidence for greater efficacy.

So in one study, we saw 93% healing in

patients taking vanoprazan versus Lanzoprasol 30 milligrams a day. We saw 85% healing in erosive

esophagitis.

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