Alvimopan is an opioid antagonist used to reduce healing time of the upper and lower gastrointestinal tract following surgical procedures that involve bowel resection with primary anastomosis. It is used to avoid postoperative ileus following small or large bowel resection and accelerates the gastrointestinal recovery period.
- Mechanism
- Curator reviewed
Alvimopan competitively binds to mu-opioid receptor in the gastrointestinal tract but, unlike methylnaltrexone which relies upon it ionic charge, alvimopan owes its selectivity for peripheral receptors to its pharmacokinetics. Alvimopan binds to peripheral mu-receptors with a Ki of 0.2 ng/mL.
- Primary indication
- Used to accelerate the time to upper and lower gastrointestinal recovery following partial large or small bowel resection surgery with primary anastomosis.Curator reviewed · 1 structured indication
- Formula / weight
- C25H32N2O4 · 424.5326 g/mol (avg)
- First approval
- United States, 2008
- Brand names
Resolves to
UPNUIXSCZBYVBB-JVFUWBCBSA-NSMILESC[C@H]1CN(C[C@H](CC2=CC=CC=C2)C(=O)NCC(O)=O)CC[C@@]1(C)C1=CC(O)=CC=C1What you can answer from here — as of August 30, 2026
Which drugs share a target with Alvimopan, and which of those have an active Phase 3 trial?
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