For the first time in over two decades, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new pain medication that could change how we manage acute pain. The drug is called suzetrigine and will be sold under the brand name Journavx.
This new medication is a non-opioid alternative designed to control pain without the risk of addiction. Every year, 80 million Americans receive prescriptions for pain medication, and roughly half of those are opioids, the company behind the drug claims. While opioids are highly effective, they come with serious risks, including dependence, addiction, and overdose.
With the announcement of this new FDA-approved pain medication comes a new class of pain relief that bypasses these dangers. Unlike opioids, which work by dulling pain perception in the brain, suzetrigine prevents pain signals from reaching the brain in the first place.
This distinction is a key part of what sets it apart from opioids because it means the drug does not produce euphoria, a major driver of opioid addiction. Development of suzetrigine began with a family of fire walkers in Pakistan who, due to a rare genetic mutation, could walk on hot coals without experiencing pain.
Scientists discovered that their bodies lacked a specific sodium channel responsible for transmitting pain signals to the brain. Now, after 25 years of research, scientists at Vertex Pharmaceuticals figured out how to block this same pain pathway with suzetrigine, leading to a new pain medication for the FDA to approve.
So far, clinical trials show that the new drug provides similar pain relief to opioids, reducing pain by about 50 percent. Patients recovering from abdominal and foot surgeries reported significant relief comparable to Vicodin. However, in a smaller study on chronic pain caused by sciatica, suzetrigine did not perform better than a placebo.
This suggests that the new FDA-approved pain medication may be better suited for short-term pain relief. And doctors are excited about what we’re seeing thus far. Though, they have acknowledged some challenges ahead. For starters, cost and insurance coverage will always play a large role in accessibility.
This new medication is expected to carry a wholesale price of $15.50 per pill, reports say, which means it won’t be easily accessible to everyone. Hopefully, this is something they can get reduced as time goes on. But, for now, at least we have a new type of pain medication to fall back on instead of only relying on opioids.
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