Analgesics usually appear among the most consumed drugs in Spain and other countries in the world. These medications aimed at relieving pain also have a somewhat darker side if we look at countries like the United States, plunged into an entire epidemic of opioid addiction.
Good of the FDA. Now, the US agency in charge of regulating drugs in the country, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), announced yesterday the approval of A new drug In the country. It is an analgesic not opioid, the first to reach the US in decades. We still have information about its hypothetical arrival in Europe.
The drug is focused on the treatment of pain between moderate and severe in adult patients, according to explained in a press release the agency responsible for its approval. A curious detail indicated by the agency is that those who undergo this treatment must avoid grapefruit, something relatively common With certain treatments.
“Approval (…) is an important achievement in public health in acute pain management,” indicated in the same note Jacqueline Corrigan-Curay, Director of the Center for the Evaluation and Research of Medicines of the FDA. “A new therapeutic class of non -opioid analgesics for acute pain offers an opportunity to mitigate certain risks associated with the use of opioids (…) and provides patients with another option.”
Suzetrigine This is suzetrigine (Suzetrigine), which will be marketed in 50 mg pills for oral administration under the name Journavx. The new drug has been developed by the company Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
It is administered in several doses: an initial of 100 mg and successive doses of 50 mg every 12 hours, dosage calculated through the clinical trials that gave rise to their approval. Essays that also indicated that, even though an effective compound, the new analgesic has a moderate pain reduction effect.
“It is not a mate in effectiveness,” explained in statements collected by AP Michael Schuh, from the Mayo Clinic, who was not involved in the development of the drug. “But it is a mate in the fact that it is a very different route and mechanism of action. That’s why I think it shows a great promise. ”
How do you know where it hurts? Suzetrigine works in our body focusing on sodium channels which exercise as a way in the pain signaling system of the peripheral nervous system. This is a different route from that used by other analgesics such as opioids, which act in the area of the brain that processes pain. The new drug hinders the arrival of the signal to the brain.
More than a quarter of a century later. According to Explain the US chain CNNthis is the first analgesic approved since 1998, the year in which the agency approved Celebrex (Celecoxib), an anti-inflammatory non-steroid inhibitor of the COX-2, an enzyme responsible for accelerating the formation of substances that cause in our body inflammation and pain.
Investor interest. Waiting for stock markets to open in the US, everything seems to indicate that approval will imply the recovery of the company’s market value In December last year After a bad provisional results of closing of the year. The stock market contribution of the company was gradually recovering throughout January and the announcement could confirm the “return to normal” in the figures of the company on the stock market.
An epidemic. In the US, analgesics are the type of drug More prescribed in hospitals And among them it is the opioids that represent almost half of the pain recipes. The epidemic is a consequence of a multitude of factors and has as the protagonist the fentanil, a synthetic opioid approved for pharmacological use but whose use as recreational drugs ravages in North America.
By using different mechanisms that opioids and not generating sensations of euphoria, excitement or similar, experts believe that it will not generate dependence or addiction. This could help reduce the impact of the crisis if we take into account that the dependence on opioids in numerous cases began with its pharmacological and non -recreational use.
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Image | Towfiqui Barbhuiya