Introduction
Pain is a common problem for millions of people. Many take medications every day to help make their discomfort manageable. People often turn to over-the-counter remedies, and if these do not provide sufficient relief, some seek out their physician for help. Unfortunately, common prescription medications such as hydrocodone, oxycodone, and morphine, classified as opioids (CDC, 2024), can trigger addiction and are the cause of hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths each year (Smith, 2025). An alternative pain relief medication is urgently needed to help prevent these unnecessary tragedies.
Recently approved non-opioid pain medicine
In early 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first non-opioid medicine for treating pain in adults. The new medication, known as “Journavx”, is an oral treatment that targets sodium channels in the peripheral nervous system (U.S. FDA, 2025) rather than impacting the central nervous system (CNS) as is the case with opioids. Targeting the CNS can trigger the brain’s reward system and cause addiction. By affecting a specific sodium channel outside of the central nervous system known as “Nav1.8”, Journavx removes the risk of addiction, as evidenced in clinical trials (Smith, 2025).
Background
The concept of using sodium channel blockers for pain relief is not new. Such drugs have been around for almost a century and a half. Common analgesics such as lidocaine and bupivacaine are local sodium channel blockers that are used in dentistry, during eye exams, and for skin pain relief. However, local anesthetics that numb tissue are not specific (they block all sodium channels rather than just one). When high doses of local sodium channel blockers are administered, there is a chance they could block channels in the central nervous system or the heart, harming the patient (Amir et al, 2006). A medication that targets a single sodium channel, particularly one that can be administered orally such as Journavx, can be beneficial in many ways.
Benefits of Journavx vs. current pain relievers
Opioids have a myriad of side effects. They can cause drowsiness, confusion, nausea, constipation, euphoria, and impaired judgment. We have likely all heard stories about celebrities behaving strangely while on opioid medication. Opioids can also depress the respiratory system and slow down breathing. This can cause hypoxia, a condition when not enough oxygen reaches the brain, potentially leading to coma, brain damage, or even death (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2021).
Over-the-counter medications are not risk-free either. They can cause kidney damage and even put certain groups at risk of heart attack and stroke. Journavx’s unique targeting mechanism has demonstrated to cause no such conditions (Smith, 2025).
Status of Journavx
Journavx is currently approved to treat only acute (short-term) rather than chronic (long-term) pain. While it demonstrated some side effects such as skin rashes and muscle spasms in clinical trials, side effects from Journavx were less common than those from the opioid hydrocodone and from over-the-counter acetaminophen (Smith, 2025).
Currently, Journavx is more costly than pain medications currently on the market, with a single pill costing around 15 U.S. dollars (Smith, 2025). However, additional biomedical companies are now also developing drugs that target the Nav1.8 channel, and costs are likely to drop as similar drugs reach the market.
Conclusion
Pain medication that targets sodium channels in the peripheral nervous system rather than the CNS may be the solution to the opioid crisis. While also eliminating other side effects caused by standard pain medication, such drugs hold great promise for the millions who suffer every day from pain.
Discussion