Interventions of Interest

  • Suzetrigine (Journavx™, Vertex Pharmaceuticals)

The independent appraisal committee vote was split on the net health benefit of suzetrigine compared to non-systemic therapies; suzetrigine has potential to be cost-saving due to avoided future cases of opioid use disorder.

Final Documents

For questions please contact info@icer.org.

View the Key Stakeholder List.

Final Evidence Report and Meeting SummaryDownload
Report-at-a-GlanceDownload
Final Policy RecommendationsDownload
The ICER Snapshot: for PatientsDownload
Draft Evidence ReportDownload
Response to Public CommentsDownload

ICER’s Chief Medical Officer David Rind, MD stated:

“It has been a long time since we have had a new class of drugs for acute pain. Suzetrigine has a different mechanism of action from prior oral therapies, and this creates options for treatment alone or in combination with existing medications. The overall value of this new drug is linked to the risk of a one-week course of opioids leading to opioid use disorder. If the risk is not zero and suzetrigine proves to be safe, we believe that suzetrigine will likely be a cost-effective, and perhaps a cost-saving, alternative from a long-term perspective. However, we note the skepticism about the evidence base from members of the Midwest CEPAC. Longer term data will help define the appropriate role of suzetrigine in practice, but a pain medicine with a new mechanism of action will create options for patients and clinicians.”