Vertex expects to make the newly approved non-opioid pain medicine Journavx available by the end of February.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals is working toward making its recently approved non-opioid pain medicine Journavx not only broadly available—through private and public payer coverage—but also easy for doctors to deploy in the clinic.
That’s according to chief operating officer Stuart Arbuckle, who in an investor call on Monday said that the company is currently in talks with insurance providers to secure favorable coverage arrangements for Journavx.
Part of these discussions, he emphasized, is establishing minimal “utilization management controls,” which “can get in the way of physicians wanting to prescribe and patients getting access to a new medicine.”
“Broad access on its own is insufficient,” Arbuckle said, noting that “if you’re putting lots of hurdles in the way of prescribers to actually use your medicine,” then usage rates and uptake will remain low. “Our goal is not just broad access, but broad access in both commercial and government channels, but with minimal utilization management controls.”
Vertex’s negotiations with payers have reflected these goals, Arbuckle continued, adding that aside from minimizing use controls, the company is also “certainly not considering things like step edits through generic opioids, which I think would be medically and ethically inappropriate.” Insurers sometimes require patients to “fail” less costly treatments before they can receive the physician’s first-choice therapy.
In an investor note on Monday, analysts at Leerink Partners called Arbuckle’s statement about Journavx access “encouraging,” given how promising the pain drug is for Vertex. “We believe the market underappreciates Journavx’s sales potential; although its efficacy is similar to generic drugs with different mechanisms, Journavx appears to have a better benefit-risk ratio.”
In its fourth-quarter and full-year business report on Monday, Vertex announced that the launch of Journavx is underway and that the company is in the process of minting “broad stocking arrangements” for the drug with several national retail pharmacies. Vertex expects Journavx to start shipping out by the end of February and will be available on shelves shortly thereafter.
The FDA approved Journavx in late January 2025, marking the first new non-opioid pain management option in more than 20 years. Initially, analysts raised doubts about how easily Journavx would penetrate clinical practice, with William Blair analysts writing in a note at the time of the approval that the drug could suffer from “initial inertia” from doctors.
Still, Vertex remains confident. In its news release on Monday, it pointed to legislative efforts that it says could “build momentum” in providing equitable access to Journavx. In particularl, the Non-Opioids Prevent Addiction In the Nation (NOPAIN) Act, which came into effect on Jan. 1, will provide separate payments for non-opioid pain medications given to patients under Medicare. Vertex expects Journavx to be covered under the NOPAIN Act.
In the fourth quarter, Vertex brought in $2.91 billion, representing 16% year-on-year growth—and a 5% beat of the consensus estimate. In the full year, the biotech’s revenue jumped 12% to $11.02 billion. Cystic fibrosis continued to be Vertex’s main money-maker, with a net product revenue for Trikafta of $2.91 billion in the fourth quarter. Its gene therapy Casgevy made $8 million in the same period.
Looking ahead to the year, Vertex expects total revenue to be between $11.75 billion and $12.0 billion, a forecast that is broadly in line with consensus estimates at the mid-point, according to Leerink.
