Kyoto Univ. Team Develops Pain Reliever Comparable to Morphine

Kyoto, Aug. 5 (Jiji Press)–A Kyoto University research team has developed a pain-reliever that is comparable to morphine but does not have serious side effects.

Morphine, often administered to cancer patients, has serious adverse effects such as breathing issues and addiction.

According to the team, the newly developed drug, Adriana, is a groundbreaking painkiller, which works on a completely different mechanism to morphine and other existing synthetic opioids. The drug has the potential to revolutionize pain control in the medical field, the team said.

The team also expects that the drug will help resolve the so-called opioid epidemic, in which a large number of deaths occur mainly due to overdoses of opioids.

Its findings were published in the online edition of the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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