--- title: "New Non-Opioid Drug Blocks Pain Signals Before They Can Reach Brain" description: "As the opioid crisis worsens, one pharmaceutical company has used some impressive biology to create a non-addictive, non-opioid painkiller. " date: "2024-02-01" modified: "2024-02-01" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai.md" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/non-opioid-painkiller-trials" categories: - "Brain" - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "opioids" - "painkillers" - "peripheral nervous system" - "pharmaceuticals" --- # New Non-Opioid Drug Blocks Pain Signals Before They Can Reach Brain ![As the opioid crisis worsens, one pharmaceutical company has used some impressive biology to create a non-addictive, non-opioid painkiller. ]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* As the opioid crisis worsens, one Boston-based pharmaceutical company has used some impressive biology to create what it says amounts to a non-addictive, non-opioid painkiller. As the [*New York Times* reports](), Vertex Pharmaceuticals seems to have shown some promising results in Phase 3 clinical trials, announced earlier this week [in a statement](), for patients who experienced "moderate-to-severe acute pain" after getting surgery. Whereas opioids [generally target]() both the brain and the body, which ultimately leads to their addictiveness, non-opioid drugs like Vertex's VX-548 focus on peripheral nerves, or those outside of the brain and spine, the *NYT* explains. By blocking pain at the source, the logic goes, it can be averted before reaching the brain and developing the kind of feedback loop that lends itself to dependency. This concept [isn't exactly novel]() to Vertex. Still, as [*Reuters* points out]() in its reporting on the matter, other drugmakers like Eli Lilly and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals have failed to make effective non-opioid painkillers, setting VX-548 apart. Vertex, a publicly traded company, has not released full data or results from the Phase 3 trials. But in media interviews, researchers and analysts within and outside the company are already singing the drug's praises as it prepares to file for approval with the Food and Drug Administration later this year. "This has the potential to be a blockbuster," Yale pharmacology and neuroscience expert Stephen Waxman, who was once paid a $1,000 speaking honorarium by Vertex but was not involved in the drug's trials, told the *NYT*. "I like to think it’s the beginning of nonaddictive medicines for pain." As the press release admits, VX-548 didn't meet its secondary goal of superior pain reduction over a combination of the opioid hydrocodone and the over-the-counter pill acetaminophen, but the company's stock value [jumped two percent]() regardless. As *Reuters* reports, the company's stock to date has risen 35 percent in the past year as it continuously announced good news out of its trials. "Investors and the company did not expect superiority over opioid\[s\]," Wells Fargo analyst Mohit Bansal told *Reuters*, "as there is a huge safety (and) addiction advantage even without that." With all the [social damage wreaked by opioids](), there's no question that they remain the gold standard treatment for treating severe pain. But there's long been a need for a middle ground between OTC medicines for pain and the heavy-duty addictiveness of opioids, which could, some analysts predict, be something of a Holy Grail if found to be safe and effective. "I don't think anybody expects that this drug will replace or mean the end of opioid pain medicines," Piper Sandler analyst Christopher Raymond told *Reuters*, "but it absolutely offers an alternative that is sorely needed." **More on medicine:** [*Unregulated White House Pharmacy Gave Out Uppers and Downers to Senior Staff Under Trump*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()