
FDA approves painkiller 1,000 times more powerful than morphine - mancerayder
https://www.wivb.com/news/national/fda-approves-painkiller-1-000-times-more-powerful-than-morphine/1572647103
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dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18366321](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18366321)

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Someone1234
Seems like this was primarily designed for military applications. To quote the
article:

> The pill from AcelRx Pharmaceuticals contains the same decades-old
> painkiller often given in IV form or injection to surgical patients and
> women in labor. [..] The pills contain sufentanil, a chemical cousin of the
> opioid fentanyl.

So this drug is already highly available in hospitals via IV, this turns the
IV into a pill, and the primary use-cases seem to be on the battlefield (where
placing an IV may be dangerous both for sanitary reasons but also for
practical reasons, like bullets whizzing by).

> Gottlieb noted the pill was a high priority for the Department of Defense,
> which helped fund testing, because it wanted a way to provide fast pain
> relief to injured soldiers. The tablet, placed under the tongue with a
> dispenser, starts reducing pain in 15 to 30 minutes.

PS - Not trying to imply the pill is bad because it was designed for military
usage, more trying to balance out the misleading title "FDA approves
painkiller 1,000 times more powerful than morphine." That "1,000 times more
powerful" drug is already common as heck and decades old, this is a new
DELIVERY SYSTEM.

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dahdum
It’s more potent but essentially like every other opiod in action. I think
it’s far more worthwhile to reduce new prescriptions for OxyContin, Percocet,
and Vicodin than worry about niche opioids like this.

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TylerE
Possibly unpopular opinion: we’d be better off giving out more scrips and
having fewer people scoring who-knows-what on the street. So many heroin
stories start with: Shen my doctor wouldn’t give me a refill.

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dahdum
I tried to clarify new prescription vs refill for this reason. Once they are
hooked I do believe harm reduction is warranted.

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DougN7
Very hard to tell who is hooked. Someone close to me had been using opiods for
many years and is still in terrible pain most days. This person’s meds keep
getting cut due to opiod-fear, which just increases the misery. So please
remember there are legitimate long term uses, even if that’s not what we see
in the papers.

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assblaster
Potency doesn't matter if the dosage is decreased 100-1000x on a weight basis.

It does, however, matter in cases of illicit production when a milligram of
the drug is enough to kill a horse.

