Now, millions more people will soon have access to this painkiller — a drug called suzetrigine that works by selectively blocking sodium channels on pain-sensing nerve cells and delivers opioid-level pain suppression without the risks of addiction, sedation or overdose. On Thursday, the US Food and Drug Administration approved suzetrigine for short-term pain management, making it the first pain drug given a regulatory nod in more than 20 years that works through a brand-new mechanism.

"This is a big step forward," says Stephen Waxman, a neuroscientist at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.

"Anything we can add to the toolbox that will allow us to reduce opioid dependency is a significant positive," says Paul White, an anaesthesiologist at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, who was involved in suzetrigine's development.