Drug companies in race to come up with safer alternatives to opioids

Washington

IN THE wake of mounting overdoses and deaths from the opioid addiction crisis sweeping across the US, drugmakers are racing to come up with safer painkillers.

Companies are highly motivated to create alternatives to the US$4 billion opioid market. The US 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 that it considers unsafe.

Drugs such as morphine, fentanyl, and oxycodo…