VIDEO: FDA Approves Non-Opioid Painkiller to Cut Risk of Addiction

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday approved a non-opioid pain medication that can prevent people from becoming addicted and at risk of overdosing.

The pill is Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ Journavx that is to be used for a short time after patients undergo surgery or suffer an injury, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

In its press release on Thursday, Vertex said the FDA approved the the twice-daily pill for adults suffering from moderate-to-severe acute pain:

JOURNAVX (suzetrigine) is a first-in-class, oral, non-opioid, highly selective pain signal inhibitor that is selective for NaV1.8 relative to other NaV channels. NaV1.8 is a voltage-gated sodium channel that is selectively expressed in peripheral pain-sensing neurons (nociceptors), where its role is to transmit pain signals (action potentials). Because JOURNAVX blocks pain signals only found in the periphery, not in the brain, JOURNAVX provides effective relief of pain without the limitations of currently available therapies, including the addictive potential of opioids.

It is the first approved pain medication in the past 20 years and the cost is $15.50 per pill, according to the Today show.

The price tag means it is much more expensive than some opioids which can be sold as generics for $1 or less, per the AP.

The outlet continued:

Vertex began researching the drug in the 2000s, when overdoses were rocketing upward, principally driven by mass prescribing of opioid painkillers for common ailments like arthritis and back pain. Prescriptions have fallen sharply in the last decade and the current wave of the opioid epidemic is mainly due to illicit fentanyl, not pharmaceutical medicines.

Opioids reduce pain by binding to receptors in the brain that receive nerve signals from different parts of the body. Those chemical interactions also give rise to opioids’ addictive effects.

Vertex’s drug works differently, blocking proteins that trigger pain signals that are later sent to the brain.

In her statement about the FDA’s approval, Jessica Oswald, M.D., M.P.H., Associate Physician in Emergency Medicine and Pain Medicine in San Diego and Vertex Acute Pain Steering Committee Member, said, “I believe JOURNAVX could redefine the management of pain and become a foundational treatment option for people with all types of moderate-to-severe acute pain, where options aside from opioids have been so desperately needed.”

The news comes after the Justice Department has taken legal action and accused the Walgreens pharmacy chain of “wrongly filled millions of prescriptions for addictive opioid drugs and then claimed financial reimbursement for many of those prescriptions through government healthcare programs,” UPI reported on January 18.

To read more articles about the opioid crisis, click here.