January 31, 2025
3 min learn
What Is Journavx, the New Opioid-Free Painkiller from Vertex?
The nonaddictive painkiller suzetrigine (Journavx) is as efficient for acute ache as a typical opioid remedy
MStudioImages/Getty Pictures
For the primary time in 25 years, the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration has accepted a brand new kind of painkiller. Suzetrigine, offered as Journavx, is run twice day by day in 50-milligram oral tablets to deal with reasonable and extreme acute ache.
Scientific trials confirmed that the remedy dampened ache as successfully as an opioid-based painkiller. And maybe most significantly, suzetrigine does so with out the identical danger of dependancy.
How does suzetrigine work?
On supporting science journalism
For those who’re having fun with this text, take into account supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By buying a subscription you might be serving to to make sure the way forward for impactful tales in regards to the discoveries and concepts shaping our world right this moment.
The drug dampens ache indicators earlier than they attain the mind. It prevents nerve cells everywhere in the physique from firing by obstructing so-called sodium ion channels. These channels are embedded in a nerve cell’s membrane, and by opening and shutting, they carry electrical impulses alongside the nerve.
Drug corporations have been attempting to create painkillers that concentrate on sodium ion channels for many years, however the improvement pipeline had largely dried up after many false begins. With suzetrigine, developed by pharmaceutical firm Vertex, they lastly succeeded.
The FDA’s approval is predicated on two part 3 scientific trials carried out in sufferers after tummy tuck and bunion removing surgical procedures. In each trials, about 1,000 sufferers acquired suzetrigine, placebo, or the mixture of the opioid hydrocodone and acetaminophen previously offered as Vicodin. Suzetrigine and the opioid remedy each reduce ache by about three factors on the usual 10-point ache ranking scale. Suzetrigine labored sooner and had fewer unwanted effects.
Why is suzetrigine so vital?
For many years, individuals experiencing ache have had two choices. One has been over-the-counter drugs that supply restricted aid, together with acetaminophen and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication (NSAIDS) reminiscent of aspirin and ibuprofen. The opposite has been opioids, with their danger of dependancy and antagonistic unwanted effects. These restricted choices have made opioids the one alternative for many individuals who expertise critical ache, whether or not acute or persistent, and it has fueled an opioid disaster that kills greater than 100,000 individuals within the U.S. annually and ravages communities.
Suzetrigine, together with related new drugs that are actually being examined, will present a a lot wanted third choice for individuals who search ache aid. As a result of the drug works solely on peripheral nerve cells and never on the mind or spinal wire, it doesn’t carry the danger of dependancy that opioids do.
Whereas suzetrigine is simply accepted to deal with acute ache, Vertex has reported constructive outcomes from a trial of the drug’s security and efficacy in individuals who expertise persistent ache from diabetic peripheral neuropathy. A part 3 scientific trial is now underway. Different corporations are additionally working to develop drugs that concentrate on sodium ion channels in numerous methods.
“We are definitely hopeful that we can replace opioids, and that’s the goal here,” mentioned Ana Moreno of Navega Therapeutics to journalist Marla Broadfoot in a latest Scientific American function article on the promise of those sodium-ion-channel-blocking medication.
What are the unwanted effects of suzetrigine?
Amongst trial members, the most typical unwanted effects of the drug had been itching, muscle spasms, elevated ranges of creatine phosphokinase within the blood and rash. The remedy shouldn’t be taken alongside others that strongly inhibit an enzyme referred to as CYP3A, which incorporates some antibiotics and antivirals. Individuals on the suzetrigine must also not eat grapefruit.
[Read more: “Why Grapefruit Interferes with Medication, and What to Do about It”]
Vertex says that the remedy shall be obtainable for $15.50 per 50-milligram capsule, or about $30 per day. In distinction, comparable doses of the hydrocodone and acetaminophen mixture retail for a mean of about $7 per day. It stays to be seen how insurance coverage corporations and Medicare will cowl suzetrigine.
