In this article VRTX Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT A sign hangs in front of the world headquarters of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston. Brian Snyder | Reuters The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved Vertex Pharmaceuticals ' non-opioid painkiller pill, a new alternative for pain relief that comes without the risk of addiction. Vertex is now the first drugmaker in decades to gain U.
S. approval for a new type of pain medicine. It's a milestone after a long history of mostly unsuccessful efforts to develop painkillers without the destructive dependency of cheap and widely available opioids, which have caused a horrific epidemic of abuse and overdose in the U.
S. Vertex's drug, Journavx, is specifically approved for the treatment of moderate-to-severe acute pain, which is usually caused by injury, surgery, illness, trauma or painful medical procedures and likely eases with time. Around 80 million patients are prescribed a medicine for their moderate-to-severe acute pain every year in the U.
S., according to Vertex. Almost 10% of patients with acute pain who are treated initially with an opioid will go on to have prolonged opioid use, and roughly 85,000 people will develop opioid use disorder annually, Vertex said in a statement.
"We have the opportunity to change the paradigm of acute pain management and establish a new standard of care," Dr. Reshma Kewalramani, Vertex CEO, said in a statement . Vertex said Journavx will have a list price of $15.
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