FDA approves painkillers to eliminate the risk of addiction | News, sports, jobs
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FDA approves painkillers to eliminate the risk of addiction | News, sports, jobs

This photo provided by Vertex Pharmaceuticals in January 2025 shows a tablet and a bottle of Jourvx (Suzetrigin) medication. (Vertex Pharmaceuticals via AP)

Washington (AP) – Federal officials on Thursday approved a new type of pain pill designed to eliminate the risks of addiction and overdose in connection with opioid drugs such as vicodin and oxycontin.

US Food and Drug Administration said it approved Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ Jouravx for short -term pain that often follows surgery or injuries.

It is the first new pharmaceutical method for treating pain in more than 20 years, and offers an alternative to both opioids and drugs without dishes such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen. But the drug’s modest efficiency and long development process emphasize the challenges of finding new ways to deal with pain.

Studies of more than 870 patients with acute pain due to foot and abdominal operations showed that Vertex’s drug provided more relief than a dummy pill but did not exceed a common opioid acetaminophen combination pill.

“It’s not a sludge can on efficiency,” said Michael Schuh from Mayo Clinic, a pharmacist and pain medical expert who was not involved in the research. “But it is a sludge can because it is a completely different path and mechanism of action. So I think it shows a lot of promise. “

The new drug will have a list price of $ 15.50 per pill, which makes it many times more expensive than comparable opioids, which are often available as a generic for $ 1 or less.

Vertex began examining the drug in the 2000s, when overdoses shaved upwards, mainly driven by mass depreciation of opioid painkillers for common diseases such as arthritis and back pain. Recipes have dropped sharply over the past decade and the current wave of opioide epidemic is mainly due to illegal fentanyl, not pharmaceutical drugs.

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

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

“When trying to develop drugs that do not have addictive risks to opioid drugs, a key factor is working to block pain signaling before it comes to the brain,” Vertexs Dr. David Altshuler, told Associated Press last year.

Commonly reported side effects with the drug were nausea, constipation, itching, rash and headaches.

“The new medicine has side effect profiles that in themselves are not only different, but does not involve the risk of abuse and other important side effects associated with opioids,” Said Dr. Charles Argoff from the Albany Medical Center, which consulted for Vertex on the development of the drug.

The first concept for focusing on pain -signaling proteins came out of research involving people with a rare hereditary condition that causes insensitivity to pain.

Vertex has aroused interest from Wall Street for its ambitious drug abuse, which means winning the FDA approval for several drugs over several forms of chronic pain, which generally represents a greater economic opportunity than acute pain.

But the Boston drug producer’s share price fell in December when Vertex reported a disappointment in the middle of the stage results in a study of patients with chronic nerve pain that affect the lower back and legs. The drug did not perform significantly better than placebo, the research found.

“We believe the data reflects an almost worst case for this important pipeline program,” Biotechnology -analyst Brian Abraham’s said in a research note to investors and added that the results jeopardized estimate that Vertex’s pipeline can be worth billions above several forms of pain.

Vertex managers still said that they are planning to proceed with a new study on late stage of the drug and theorize that another test design could produce better results and pave the way for FDA approval in chronic pain.

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AP Video Journalist Mary Conlon contributed to this story from New York.

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Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Education Media Group and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. AP is solely responsible for all content.