Dr. Brett Stacey, a pain medicine specialist at UW Medicine, is excited about suzetrigine, a nonopioid analgesic newly approved by the FDA. Suzetrigine's novelty is that it works by blocking pain signals before they reach the brain. In that way, it differs from opioids, which affect the brain's perception of pain signals and also have more negative side effects.
“This is the first drug in my career that was developed this way,” said Stacey, a practitioner for nearly four decades. Today suzetrigine is available only for acute pain and is limited to prescriptions of 14 days. Its patient cost is listed as $31 per day. Stacey is optimistic that in a few years, suzetrigine or a similarly devised drug could be available for long-term pain relief.
Download broadcast-ready soundbites and related multimedia with Stacey. Read our related Noteworthy item.
