Vertex Pharmaceuticals is currently seeking regulatory approval for a new drug that looks promising in clinical trials. Suzetrigine could be the first of an entirely new class of pain therapy. It targets specific sodium ion channels found on pain-sensing nerve cells. While the effect of the drug is modest, it demonstrates that the strategy of targeting sodium channels specific to pain-sensing neurons works, leading to hope that the next generation of these compounds could perform much better. Suzetrigine could be approved by early 2025.