PLx Pharma strikes collab with baseball legend John Smoltz to take its pain drug Vazalore to the major leagues

PLx Pharma is running a new branded campaign with Atlanta Braves veteran John “Smoltzie” Smoltz for the specialty pharma’s reworked high-dose pain drug Vazalore.

The med, essentially liquid-filled aspirin capsules, is set up as a “targeted” form for pain relief that PLx says is less taxing on a patient’s stomach. It was launched in the U.S. last August, with the company making the case for using high-dose Vazalore 325 mg instead of well-established immediate-release and enteric-coated formulations of aspirin.

The pitch rests on the potential to reduce the risk of stomach injury in the millions of people who use aspirin as an anti-platelet therapy.

Smoltz played in the MLB for 22 seasons from 1988 to 2009 almost exclusively for the Atlanta Braves and then became an avid golfer. He will now head up the new Vazalore advertising campaign, which is being run initially on Facebook and takes that case to the wider world.

Coinciding with September’s Pain Awareness Month, Smoltz appears on PLx Pharma’s corporate Facebook page talking up the drug’s ability to lower his pain, with images of him throwing a baseball in the air and being with his dog.

“From baseball to golf, I don’t want aches and pains to slow me down,” said Smoltz on the post. “Vazalore is the only pain reliever I have found that works quickly on my aches and pains and doesn’t upset my stomach.”

The post links to Vazalore’s branded website page that has—unusually for a drug’s website—patient posts recommending the med, though it’s not clear whether these are from genuine users of the product.

Vazalore is based on the pharma’s PLxGuard drug delivery platform, which is designed to enable the release of the active ingredient to targeted portions of the gastrointestinal tract.

In the context of aspirin, targeted release could prevent the ulceration and other issues that arise in people who take daily low doses of the drug. A 2011 study linked Vazalore to a lower rate of ulcers and erosions than plain aspirin.