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 therapy
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For the primary time in 25 years, the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration has authorised a brand new sort of painkiller. Suzetrigine, bought as Journavx, is run twice every 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 threat of habit.
How does suzetrigine work?
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The drug dampens ache alerts 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 firms have been making an attempt to create painkillers that focus 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 relies on two section 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 mix of the opioid hydrocodone and acetaminophen previously bought as Vicodin. Suzetrigine and the opioid therapy each minimize ache by about three factors on the usual 10-point ache ranking scale. Suzetrigine labored sooner and had fewer unintended effects.
Why is suzetrigine so necessary?
For many years, individuals experiencing ache have had two choices. One has been over-the-counter drugs that provide restricted aid, together with acetaminophen and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication (NSAIDS) corresponding to aspirin and ibuprofen. The opposite has been opioids, with their threat of habit and antagonistic unintended effects. These restricted choices have made opioids the one alternative for many individuals who expertise critical ache, whether or not acute or continual, and it has fueled an opioid disaster that kills greater than 100,000 individuals within the U.S. every year and ravages communities.
Suzetrigine, together with comparable new drugs that at the moment are 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 habit that opioids do.
Whereas suzetrigine is barely authorised to deal with acute ache, Vertex has reported optimistic outcomes from a trial of the drug’s security and efficacy in individuals who expertise continual ache from diabetic peripheral neuropathy. A section 3 scientific trial is now underway. Different firms are additionally working to develop drugs that focus on sodium ion channels in several methods.
“We’re undoubtedly hopeful that we are able to exchange opioids, and that’s the objective right here,” stated Ana Moreno of Navega Therapeutics to journalist Marla Broadfoot in a latest Scientific American characteristic article on the promise of those sodium-ion-channel-blocking medication.
What are the unintended effects of suzetrigine?
Amongst trial members, the most typical unintended 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. Folks 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 will probably be out there for $15.50 per 50-milligram tablet, or about $30 per day. In distinction, comparable doses of the hydrocodone and acetaminophen mixture retail for a median of about $7 per day. It stays to be seen how insurance coverage firms and Medicare will cowl suzetrigine.
