New Drug Shows Promise as Opioid Alternative

Researchers at Memorial Sloan Ketterer Cancer Center in New York City think they’ve found an opioid-like substance that could provide the same pain relief as opioids without the side effects that lead to addiction and overdose. The substance is called iodobenzoylnaltrexamide, or IBNtxA for short. A team of researchers including doctors Gavril Pasternak and Ying-Xian Pan first derived the substance from the opioid dependence-treating drug naltrexone in 2011 and have been working to understand more about it ever since. In mice, the research has shown that IBNtxA reduces pain without depr...