Get HutchMF on Painkiller Already

Systemic incentives across the healthcare system prioritized aggressive pain scoring and pushed clinicians toward prescribing opioids as the default. This raises the question of whether we need to fix the economic structures before we can truly solve the overdose epidemic.

Investor pressure heavily favors me‑too molecules and quick commercial returns. Without a pricing or patent framework that values meaningful clinical endpoints, we may keep reaching for drugs that are safer on paper but no more effective in practice.