Historic FDA approval marks first nonopioid breakthrough since Clinton era

The Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday its approval of suzetrigine, the first new painkiller greenlit by the agency since 1998.

Sold by Vertex Pharmaceuticals in 50-milligram tablets as Journavx, suzetrigine is the first nonopioid painkiller to target pain-signaling pathways in the peripheral nervous system before those signals reach the brain, the FDA said.

The last painkiller OK’d by the FDA was Celebrex, a Cox-2 inhibitor, according to CNN. That category of nonsteroidal, anti-inflammatory drug works by targeting the body’s production of a chemical that causes pain.