Stand Up for Science ends Traces Thursday with pain drug case study

Stand Up for Science has published the final installment of its Traces Thursday series, spotlighting how basic research helped produce suzetrigine, a non-opioid pain drug now sold as Journavx. The case study lands as debates over federal science funding continue, underscoring the long timeline from lab discovery to medical treatment.

Why it matters: - The final Traces Thursday case study shows how basic research can lead to new treatments that address major public health problems. - The story focuses on a pain medicine designed to avoid the addiction risks tied to opioids. - The release comes as the U.S. continues to face more than 50,000 overdose deaths a year, many linked to prescriptions that begin after surgery or injury.

What happened: - Stand Up for Science published the twelfth and final installment of its weekly “Traces Thursday” series on November 14, 2026. - The final story, “Treating pain without risk of addiction,” follows the decades-long path to suzetrigine, a non-addictive painkiller marketed as Journavx. - The case study is part of a series built around scientific patience and the long route from research to medical discovery.

The details: - Opioids remain effective painkillers, but they carry risks of tolerance, addiction, and abuse. - The article says pain medicines that do not rely on the brain’s opioid system are urgently needed. - In the 1940s, two biophysicists studying squid nerves showed that nerve signals move through charged particles flowing in ion channels. - Scorpion venom later helped researchers identify and clone those ion channels because it blocks them and can paralyze prey. - Humans have nine sodium-ion channels, and two appear to carry pain signals outside the brain. - Research involving members of families in Pakistan who feel no physical pain because of mutations in one of the genes linked to those channels helped confirm the mechanism. - Multiple companies tried and failed to build a painkiller around this target before Vertex Pharmaceuticals developed suzetrigine in 2024. - The FDA approved suzetrigine in January 2025 for use after minor surgery. - The drug has been well tolerated so far and shows no signs of causing dependence. - Suzetrigine has not been shown to work for more severe pain. - Hundreds of thousands of people have used the drug successfully, and some analysts expect it to become a blockbuster.

Between the lines: - The series uses a squid, a scorpion, and a family in Pakistan to make a broader point: discoveries that look niche at first can become the basis for major medical advances. - The project also functions as a defense of basic science funding at a time when federal research support remains under debate. - The message is that the most useful medical breakthroughs often depend on work that takes far longer than a single grant cycle or a presidential administration.

What's next: - Stand Up for Science plans a final wrap-up post next week on the Science Fight Club Substack. - The wrap-up will review lessons learned and the common threads across the Traces Thursday stories. - Dr. Jeremy Berg, author of the series and a board member with Stand Up for Science, is available for comment.

The bottom line: - The final Traces Thursday story argues that long-term basic research is what makes new, non-opioid treatments possible.