A new type of painkiller aimed at treating pain from an injury or surgery has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The drug suzetrigine, also known by its brand name Journavx, only works on nerves outside the brain, where it blocks the signals that cause pain.
The drug has a completely different mechanism of action to other painkillers like opiates, paracetamol or aspirin. It is the first new class of pain medicine to be approved in the US in more than 20 years.
The drug’s manufacturer Vertex Pharmaceuticals said suzetrigine provides effective relief for moderate-to-severe pain without the addictive potential of opioids.
“Today’s approval is a historic milestone for the 80 million people in America who are prescribed a medicine for moderate-to-severe acute pain each year,” Reshma Kewalramani, CEO and President of Vertex, said in a statement.
Suzetrigine treats acute pain after injury
Kirsty Bannister, a neuroscientist and pain expert at Imperial College London in the UK, described the approval of suzetrigine as a “huge breakthrough” in the mission to find new treatments for pain, especially because the compound is not an opioid.
Opioid painkillers have . They’re addictive and can provoke a range of side effects, including drowsiness and nausea. But suzetrigine does not cause these side effects because it doesn’t act on opioid receptors in the brain.
The FDA approved suzetrigine after two large clinical trials showed the drug was effective at treating pain after patients had surgery.
The trials showed that suzetrigine eased post-surgical pain as much as did, but with lower risks of side effects.
“Suzetrigine is not intended to replace opioid medications in their entirety. Rather it can offer a relatively (relative to opioids) risk-free way of managing pain acutely,” said Bannister.
So far, the painkiller has only been approved for use in the US, but Bannister said other health agencies around the world are likely to follow the FDA’s advice to approve the drug
But it doesn’t come cheap. At $15.50 (€15) per capsule taken twice a day, it’s much pricier than off-patent painkillers like ibuprofen, aspirin, or paracetamol.
How does suzetrigine relieve pain?
Suzetrigine works by blocking the nerve fibres in the body that ultimately cause the sensation of pain.
Specialized nerves in the skin called nociceptors detect potentially harmful stimuli like heat or blunt force. These specialized nerve fibres send electrical impulses to the , which creates the sensation of pain.
Suzetrigine works by blocking the information delivered by these nociceptors before it reaches the brain, thereby reducing pain.
The pain medicineacts on a protein called voltage-gated sodium channel 1.8 (NaV1.8), turning down the volume of the electrical signals transmitted by nerve fibres.
What’s clever about the drug is that it only works on nerve fibres involved in processing pain. It does not affect other types of nerves in the body that are responsible for the sense of touch.
“This is important, because we still need to be aware of potential or actual tissue damage so that we can take protective measures towards healing,” said Bannister.
So far, studies have only provided robust evidence that suzetrigine relieves acute pain caused by injuries or surgery.
It’s unclear whether the drug is also effective at alleviating neuropathic pain — a type of persisting for over three months that occurs along with damage to nerves caused by injury or health conditions like diabetes.
Ongoing studies led by Vertex Pharmaceuticals are evaluating suzetrigine’s ability to relieve peripheral neuropathic pain as well.
Edited by: Derrick Williams
Sources:
Sodium channels Nav1.7, Nav1.8 and pain; two distinct mechanisms for Nav1.7 null analgesia
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