FDA approves Vertex’s non-opioid painkiller, first new kind of pain medicine in decades

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ non-opioid painkiller pill, a new alternative for pain relief that comes without the risk of addiction. 

Vertex is now the first drugmaker in decades to gain U.S. approval for a new type of pain medicine. It’s a milestone after a long history of mostly unsuccessful efforts to develop painkillers without the destructive dependency of cheap and widely available opioids, which have caused a horrific epidemic of abuse and overdose in the U.S.