Pharma company Vertex said on Tuesday that a new painkiller reduced acute pain without causing addiction

Roughly 80M Americans are prescribed drugs for moderate-to-severe pain annually, per Vertex

Many of those patients are given opioids, a class of drugs that effectively reduces pain but is highly addictive

Per CDC data, opioids caused 68% of the US’ 107,081 reported overdose deaths in 2022

For decades, researchers have attempted to produce a class of non-addictive painkillers

One of the most promising candidates for that is what is known as the NaV class, which works by targeting pain signals at their source, not in the brain

In theory, such drugs would reduce pain at par with opioids without leading to addiction or abuse

In recent years, Vertex – known for pioneering revolutionary drugs to treat conditions such as cystic fibrosis and sickle-cell anemia – has developed a new drug of the NaV class

Known as VX-548, it showed promise in early trials and has since begun late-stage trials on thousands of patients

On Tuesday, Vertex announced the drug had effectively reduced pain in those late-stage trials

The trials involved 2,400 patients with moderate-to-severe acute pain caused by surgeries or other medical procedures

When compared to a placebo, or inert drug, patients reported a significant reduction in pain

However, the drug was less effective than Vicodin, the brand name for a popular opioid drug

The results were published in a press release, not a peer-reviewed journal, meaning they must be viewed with caution

Vertex said it will seek regulatory approval to begin selling the drug by mid-year

Analysts said that while the results of the trial reduce the likelihood that the drug will someday replace traditional opioids, they raise optimism that the drug can be used as an alternative

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