On Jan. 30, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new drug called suzetrigine to treat moderate-to-severe pain. The prescription pills, sold under the brand name Journavx and made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, are taken twice a day and represent the first new class of pain medications in 20 years—and the first non-opioid painkiller since that class first appeared on the market in the 1980s.
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NewsTranscript
00:00There's finally some good news for anyone seeking pain relief.
00:12The FDA has approved the first non-opioid pain drug in 20 years.
00:19The new medication, Suzetragine, is sold under the brand name Jernavix and differs in an
00:25important way from opioids.
00:28Patients are highly addictive because they bind to opioid receptors throughout the central
00:33nervous system, in the spinal cord and in the brain.
00:37Suzetragine relieves pain by controlling the flow of sodium in and out of cells.
00:45We have nine sodium channels in the body, and changes in sodium flow in some of them
00:51are responsible for triggering pain signals.
00:54Suzetragine targets one sodium channel found on pain neurons and tissues throughout the
00:59body, but not in the brain.
01:02It took decades of research to find the right sodium channel target.
01:07I think in time there's a chance that this science going in this direction could possibly
01:12replace opioids, but it's a little premature to say that since it was compared to a moderate
01:18pain opioid and it was about the same, but it has not been studied against the really
01:22strong opioids.
01:24From 1999 to 2017, deaths from overdose due to prescription opioids increased more than
01:32seven times, exposing a dire need for effective but non-addictive ways to manage pain.