Crypto News: New hope for safer painkillers

Hello! It's Angelica in Boston. I've spent the past few weeks learning about the search for new types of painkillers that aren't addictive. But first...

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China lashed out at a recent report that rekindled allegations that a lab leak sparked Covid-19, saying it was driven by politics in the US.

Opioids are often prescribed for the intense pain that accompanies procedures like a hip replacement or chronic conditions like osteoarthritis. But many doctors and patients try to avoid them due to the horrific addiction epidemic in the US.

"It's been a coin with two sides," says Richard Miller, professor emeritus of pharmacology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "Is it a poison or a panacea?"

Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a Boston-based biotech company, thinks it may finally have an alternative. The company is testing a non-opioid drug for acute pain. Vertex's drug, VX-548, aims to block the Nav1.8 sodium channel, which acts like a gate allowing pain signals to travel from the nerves to the brain.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals building in Boston Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg

VX-548 met its goals in late-stage trials evaluating the drug in people who underwent a bunionectomy or an abdominoplasty, the formal name for a tummy tuck. Vertex will run the same studies with more patients before seeking regulatory approval. The company hasn't disclosed when data will be available beyond saying the trials will be quick since patients receive the drug for only 48 hours. Vertex is also testing VX-548 in nerve pain and eventually wants to see if it works for chronic pain.

If VX-548 passes its next big tests, it could offer a new option for people recovering from surgery or other medical procedures. Of course, plenty of other pain drugs that looked promising early on in testing never reached the market.

Fortunately, scientists are investing time and money on a variety of alternatives for pain. The US Food and Drug Administration provided draft guidelines earlier this year for the development of non-opioid pain medicines. The American Society of Anesthesiologists also suggests physical therapy and acupuncture as other options for people coping with pain. -Angelica Peebles

A person who took a promising Alzheimer's drug died from brain bleeding, raising questions about the risk of taking the experimental medicine alongside blood thinners, STAT reports.

Migrants are fueling New York City's underground economy, my colleagues Emma Court and Ella Ceron write. They visited so-called paradas, spots where day laborers search for work, to hear how migrants got here and what's ahead for them.

An experimental therapy for an ultra rare seizure disease was linked to a dangerous buildup of fluid in the brains of two girls who received the treatment. The New York Times shares a heartbreaking story about personalized genetic treatments.

Ask us anything — well, anything health-related that is! Each week we're picking a reader question and putting it to our network of experts. So get in touch via AskPrognosis@bloomberg.net.