Bloomberg reports that opioids are a public-health pariah, leading to more than 80,000 overdose deaths a year. Patients worry they’ll get addicted to them. Doctors want nothing to do with them. And politicians of all stripes are calling for less dangerous options for treating pain.

“We are looking for absolutely anything that’s not an opioid,” says Seth A. Waldman, MD, anesthesiologist and director of Pain Management at HSS said. 

Each year, about 80 million Americans are prescribed a medicine for acute pain, caused by the likes of broken bones, burns and the aftermath of surgeries. Some 50 million more have diabetic nerve damage or other types of chronic pain that lasts at least three months, an area Vertex is also studying. For the most part, patients have only two treatment options: anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen, which aren’t very strong, or opioids, which are highly addictive. They frequently fight with insurers over coverage of safer pain medications, which Waldman calls “a cruel joke.” “There are times when we can’t get a non-opioid medication approved, but we can get approval for an opioid,” he says.

Read the full article at bloomberg.com.