Drugmakers Are Racing to Find Alternatives to Opioids
- With $4 billion market at risk, the race is on for safer meds
- Focus is on new osteoarthritis drugs for aging baby boomers
factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012.
Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
In the wake of mounting overdoses and deaths from the opioid-addiction crisis sweeping across the U.S., drugmakers are racing to come up with safer painkillers.
Companies are highly motivated to create alternatives to the $4 billion opioid market. The federal government is cracking down on lax prescriptions that contribute to many thousands of deaths a year and has started to block the sale of medications it considers unsafe.