Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
FDA Green Lights New, Nonaddictive Pain Pill Journavx — But It's Pricey
The New York Times: F.D.A. Approves Drug to Treat Pain Without Opioid Effects
The Food and Drug Administration approved a new medication Thursday to treat pain from an injury or surgery. It is expensive, with a list price of $15.50 per pill. But unlike opioid pain medicines, it cannot become addictive. That is because the drug, suzetrigine, made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and to be sold as Journavx, works only on nerves outside the brain, blocking pain signals. It cannot get into the brain. (Kolata, 1/30)
CNN: Journavx: FDA Approves First New Type Of Pain Medication In 25 Years
Suzetrigine is the first new painkiller approved in the US since Celebrex, a type of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug called a Cox-2 inhibitor, which was approved in 1998. ... The medication was discovered after researchers learned about a family of fire walkers in Pakistan and discovered that they lacked a gene allowing pain signals to fire in their skin. Members of this family could walk over hot coals without flinching. “They knew that they were on something hot; they knew they could feel the coals. So it’s not impacting the nerves that do heat and touch and stuff like that. It is just these pain-conducting nerves,” said Stuart Arbuckle, chief operating officer of Vertex Pharmaceuticals. “They were, in every other way, normal.” Still, it took scientists 25 years to figure out how to exploit that pain-conducting mechanism to develop a medication. (Goodman, 1/30)
Also —
CBS News: New Stockton Lab Discovery Shows Promise In Fighting Fentanyl Crisis
Fentanyl overdose is the leading cause of death among Americans aged 18 to 45. It's a crisis that has impacted so many lives and families, but a new way of fighting fentanyl overdoses could be coming out of Stockton. In one of the labs inside the School of Pharmacy at the University of the Pacific is where a team discovered a new way to deliver naloxone, the chemical in Narcan that is used to combat overdoses, that they say will save even more lives. (Reynoso, 1/30)
