Designed to curb addiction, US approves first non-opioid painkiller in over 25 years

The US Food and Drug Administration approved a new type of pain reliever on Thursday. It is the first new pain reliever approved in more than 25 years.

The drug approved is suzetrigine. It is a 50-milligram prescription pill taken every 12 hours after a larger starter dose. It will be sold under the brand name Journavx.

It is designed to eliminate the risks of addiction and overdose associated with opioid medications like Vicodin and OxyContin.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it approved Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ Journavx for short-term pain that often follows surgery or injuries.

Studies involving over 870 patients with acute pain from foot and abdominal surgeries found that Vertex’s drug offered more relief than a placebo, but studies pointed out that it didn’t work better than a common opioid-acetaminophen combination pill.

“It’s not a slam dunk on effectiveness,” said Michael Schuh of the Mayo Clinic, a pharmacist and pain medicine expert who was not involved in the research. “But it is a slam dunk in that it’s a very different pathway and mechanism of action. So, I think that shows a lot of promise.”

The new drug will be priced at $15.50 per pill, making it much more expensive than similar opioids, which are often available for $1 or less as generics. Vertex started researching the drug in the 2000s, when opioid overdoses were rising sharply due to widespread prescriptions for common conditions like arthritis and back pain.

While prescriptions have dropped significantly in the past decade, the current opioid crisis is mainly driven by illegal fentanyl, not prescription medications.

Opioids relieve pain by attaching to receptors in the brain that process nerve signals from the body. However, these chemical interactions also lead to opioids’ addictive effects.