FDA Approves New Non-Opioid Painkiller

What Happened?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just approved Journavx. It’s a non-opioid analgesic designed to treat moderate to severe pain symptoms in adults. 

According to a statement issued by the FDA, ‘Journavx reduces pain by targeting a pain-signaling pathway involving sodium channels in the peripheral nervous system, before pain signals reach the brain.’

Journavx is also the first drug approved by the FDA in this new class of pain treatment medications. The FDA approval is for fifty milligram oral tablets. The manufacturer of Journavx is Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

Why it Matters

Dr. Jacqueline Corrigan-Curry, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said, ‘Today’s approval is an important public health milestone in acute pain management.’

The use of a non-opioid analgesic strong enough to treat severe pain will offer patients an option that has a much lower risk of addiction, which has long been a problem with opioids. 

Opioids, which are powerful painkillers, were initially produced and marketed as non-addictive, even though they are highly addictive chemical compounds. 

According to the U.S. government, since 1999 over three-quarters of a million Americans have died from drug overdoses. Seventy-five percent of those were from opioid use. 

Entire communities across the United States have been devastated by the destruction of opioid addiction, which not only costs lives but can also destroy livelihoods. In addition, criminal activity to gain illegal access to opioids soared in the early 2000s, with some county prosecutors claiming over half of all their cases were drug or drug related. 

Some eighty million Americans currently receive prescriptions for pain medication, and many of those are still for opioids. Chronic pain can be a result of severe and untreated underlying health conditions such a diabetes, obesity, and a number of other long term illnesses.

Injuries are another major source of pain, with both recreational and work-related injuries accounting for the vast majority in the United States. Instead of treating the underlying causes of chronic pain, doctors and patients instead rely on pain medication. This brings with it the risk of addiction and other medical side effects which can themselves be difficult to treat. 

Drug companies have argued that when used properly under the supervision of a doctor, opioids can be an important tool in fighting severe pain. But the quick high and feelings of euphoria opioids can produce makes them more likely to be abused as users chase the high. 

Non-opioid analgesics like Journavx offer the potential to deliver opioid like pain reduction without the addiction and nasty side effects.

How it Affects You

Journavx has been thoroughly tested in double blind scientific studies.

As it becomes more frequently prescribed, practitioners and researchers will be able to see if it can deliver on its promise to treat pain without causing more addiction.