LISTEN: A new painkiller could offer patients a way to avoid potentially lethal addiction to opioids. GPB’s Ellen Eldridge has more.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new drug called Journavx, which blocks pain signals from getting to the brain.
When someone experiences pain, the signal travels from the peripheral nervous system to the brain for processing.
Opioids manage pain by blocking pain receptors in the brain.
Dr. Jessica McCoun, an anesthesiologist who worked on the new drug's clinical trial, said Journavx works on nerves outside the brain, so there's no habit-forming potential.
"This actually gets to the root cause of the pain and stops the potentiation there versus just decreasing what your body is feeling of the pain," McCoun said.
To feel pain, a message has to be sent to your brain for you to realize you're having that pain, and Journavx blocks the receptor that potentiates that signal, decreasing the amount of pain that your brain is sensing.
The "nav" in Journavx comes from the nav receptors in our bodies that the medication blocks. That receptor is only expressed in the periphery, which is something that's very novel about this, McCoun said, calling the drug a breakthrough for pain related to accidents, surgeries or other acute injuries.
