Pain meets precision medicine

The addictive properties of opioids and the lives shattered by their misuse and overprescription are heavily chronicled chapters of the early 21st century. For over 2 decades, scientists in academia and industry have been trying to design nonaddictive painkillers by turning to key proteins involved in neuron function: voltage-gated sodium channels. Now, Vertex Pharmaceuticals is on the cusp of crossing the finish line. Vertex’s new compound, dubbed suzetrigine—pronounced “soo-ZEH-trih-jeen”—targets a specific protein channel that is expressed in pain-signaling neurons in the peripheral nervous system. The US Food and Drug Administration approved suzetrigine for the treatment of acute pain in January as expected. Experts say the drug could set the stage for the development of further compounds that target this and similar channels. “It’s time for a precision medicine in pain,” says Paul Negulescu, a cell biologist who leads Vertex’s pain program. “That’s what’s so exciting about these selective inhibitors.” A