Pain relief without addiction has been a pharmaceutical goal long before the opioid crisis. A newly approved medicine appears to have achieved that.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Journavx to treat short-term pain. The drug, which was developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston and tested as a pain treatment following surgeries, targets the nerves near an injury site instead of in the brain.
“It works in a way that is different than previous medications,” says Paul Negulescu, senior vice president at Vertex.
Such alternatives are sorely needed. About 40 million U.S. adults are prescribed an opioid every year, with about 85,000 developing an addiction within the first year of use. Opioid prescriptions peaked in 2010 and decreased each year through 2015, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report.
However, they are still prescribed much more heavily than in 1999. And people turned to ...
