Patients who suffer from pain could soon have a non-opioid alternative. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted primary review to suzetrigine, with a decision expected by Jan. 30, 2025.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, the company behind the medication, has billed it as a non-addictive way to treat moderate-to-severe acute pain.
“In my 24 years practicing medicine, I have seen firsthand the desperate need for new non-opioid therapies for treating pain. Too many people today are either undertreated, dealing with negative side effects of currently available therapies or foregoing pain medications altogether for fear of becoming dependent on opioids,” said Dr. Scott Weiner, the Vertex Acute Pain Steering Committee Chair, in a press release.
If approved, Suzetrigine would be the first new class of medicine to treat acute pain in more than twenty years. However, Investopedia reported that Vertex’s stocks plunged recently after the company reported mixed results in its Phase 2 trial. The company said the trial of suzetrigine met its primary endpoint in reducing pain, but a placebo comparison showed a “similar within-group reduction from baseline in pain.”