Israeli pharmaceutical company PainReform has won approval to continue developing a pain relief drug that does not use potentially addictive opioids . The US Food and Drug Administration said the firm could carry out late - stage clinical studies for PRF-110 , which prolongs the effectiveness of the post - operation painkiller ropivacaine . Earlier studies suggested it could relieve pain for up to 24 hours after surgery , 10 times longer than current medications . Should PainReform’s treatment pass its trials, results for which Hazum estimated could come within a year after they start, it would compete with other non-opiate drugs like Heron Therapeutics’ HTX-011, which just finished Phase 3 studies. PainReform said the market for such treatment was worth $ 1 . Opioids were involved in 42,000 deaths in the US in 2016 and 40 % of opioid overdose deaths involved current makes of the drugs .
Israeli pharmaceutical company PainReform has won approval to continue developing a pain relief drug that does not use potentially addictive opioids . The US Food and Drug Administration said the firm could carry out late - stage clinical studies for PRF-110 , which prolongs the effectiveness of the post - operation painkiller ropivacaine . Earlier studies suggested it could relieve pain for up to 24 hours after surgery , 10 times longer than current medications . PainReform said the market for such treatment was worth $ 1 . Opioids were involved in 42,000 deaths in the US in 2016 and 40 % of opioid overdose deaths involved current makes of the drugs .