A new painkiller – claimed to be as effective as morphine but not addictive – may
soon be available. Tested on 3,200 patients by 200 doctors, the drug, zomepirac sodium, is
considered likely by some physicians to be a major breakthrough in developing drugs to
relieve pain.
“Until recently, there was no analgesic taken by mouth that in usual doses had
proved superior to two tablets of aspirin,” says Dr.Williams T. Beaver, professor of
pharmacology and anesthesia at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.But zomepirac is
“clearly superior to the usual dose of aspirin and compares favourably even with potent,
injectable painkiller.”
In two major trials, the new drug relieved postoperative pain better than codeine.
Two other studies found it to be a good substitute for injectable morphine in easing
postsurgical and cancer pain. A fifth study showed that zomepirac is not addicting. Declared
one investigator : ‘We’ve not seen anything like this in our experience.”