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Drug Development

FDA approves new nonopioid pain medication, hailed a 'triumph'

Vertex’s suzetrigine is a paradigm shift in pain management, the firm’s CEO says

by Laura Howes
January 31, 2025

 

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new, nonopioid pain medication for treating moderate to severe acute pain. Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ suzetrigine, which will be marketed under the name Journavx, targets specific sodium channels that help pass signals on from the site of pain.

With the medicine’s approval, “we have the opportunity to change the paradigm of acute pain management and establish a new standard of care,” Vertex CEO Reshma Kewalramani said in a news announcement. Decades of research identifying the pain sodium channels and developing small-molecule inhibitors culminated in the drug. Journavx binds to the voltage-sensing domain of the sodium channel NaV1.8, stabilizing the channel’s closed state and preventing pain (Pain and Therapy 2025, DOI: 10.1007/s40122-024-00697-0).

“The Vertex suzetrigine story really is a triumph,” neurobiologist John Wood told C&EN for a recent story going into more detail about the science behind the new drug. The decision may also be seen as a vote of confidence for others developing sodium channel inhibitors.

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