King of Prussia’s Trevena  is making headway on its Oliceridine painkiller which could provide a safer opioid alternative to current drug treatments, writes Laurel Hamers for Science News.

The search for a ‘safe’ painkiller has been spurred on by the growing epidemic of opioid addiction. This has made doctors very reluctant to prescribe traditional pain medication such as codeine, morphine, and oxycodone in case a patient becomes addicted to them or shares their pills.

Trevena is focusing on a breakthrough in the field that shows that the protein, beta-arrestin 2, is the trigger for opioid addiction. To bypass this, Oliceridine is designed to provide pain relief without triggering beta-arrestin 2.

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A study published in April showed that Oliceridine is as effective as morphine when used in moderate amounts. But Oliceridine is not a perfect solution, as it needs to be administered intravenously at the hospital during and after surgery.

Trevena’s cofounder, Jonathan Violin, said that as such, it is not a replacement for the pills that people take home with them and side effects do occur in higher doses. However, the King of Prussia company is still hopeful that when it submits an FDA approval application later this year, it will be successful.

Read more about Trevena’s advances in opioid medicine at Science News by clicking here.

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