“In the nineteenth century, the invention of anesthesia was considered a gift from God. But post-operative pain relief has continued to rely on opioids, derivatives of opium, the addictive substance employed since ancient times. This all changed in January 2025, when the FDA approved Vertex Pharmaceuticals’s Journavx (suzetrigine): the first non-opioid pain reliever suitable for treating post-surgery pain. Clinical trials found no signs of the problematic side effects associated with opioids: no drug abuse, tolerance, or withdrawal. But this was not an easy win: Vertex and other pharma companies spent decades searching for drugs like this to no avail.”From Works in Progress.