[jyl]

There's at least a couple non-opioid pain drug candidates in development, one I looked at is Vertex VX548. Some reading I did suggested it might be somewhat comparable to Vicodin (hydrocodone). Drug discovery and development is incredibly hard and expensive, the drug could easily fail in clinical trials.

There will be a major commercial obstacle to any non-opioid pain drugs that are successfully developed, which is that opioids are effective and dirt cheap. It is not that "the pharma industry is making billions from opioids" - it was, but opioid pain drugs went off patent long ago - or that "the industry doesn't want an alternative" - only the generic drug companies (mostly Indian) might get hurt. But if you're Vertex, and VX548 succeeds, you'll be trying to sell a premium-priced non-opiod, and its not clear how much doctors, hospitals, insurers will cooperate, meanwhile your own patent life is ticking away, in several (5-8? don't recall patent expiry) years the generics will be making VX-548 and selling it cheaply.