Powerful pain-killer will be tested in Las Vegas

Las Vegas has been chosen as one of only 15 cities in the United States to test a new pain-killing drug that is 200 times more powerful than morphine, a research facility announced last week.

Tests on ABT-594, developed by Abbott Laboratories of North Chicago, Ill., will begin Tuesday at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center under the direction of Dr. Stephen Miller, a Las Vegas internal medicine physician and lead investigator in the study.

If approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the drug could be a godsend to millions of people suffering from arthritis.

The drug is naturally derived from the skin of a tiny frog in Ecuador called Epibpedobates tricolor. It is no bigger than a fingernail and is bright red and green. ABT-596 is a derivative of the frog's poison.

"The drug won't stop inflammation, but how you perceive the pain," Miller said Friday. And unlike narcotics now prescribed -- such as codeine, Lortab and morphine -- ABT-596 is not addictive.

The nationwide study is expected to last several years before the FDA considers approving the drug.

Two studies in Las Vegas will be conducted over the next two months, Miller said. One will involve people seeking treatment for arthritis of the knee, and the other will be for patients who undergo hip and knee operations.

Between 20 and 30 people will be involved in both studies, Miller said. Neither the patients nor the researchers will know who is taking a placebo or ABT-596.

ABT-596 is the latest in advances in pain killers being researched in the medical community over the past two decades.

The most recent breakthrough was Celebrex, approved by the FDA in December, which Miller also helped research. Some physicians think Celebrex will reduce inflammation as new generations of the drug are developed.

"Celebrex was a major breakthrough," Miller said. "All these years, research has been going into cancer and heart disease. Now, there is a whole new level of pain control that we are getting into because people want to have quality of life."

Since 1997, Miller said he has been involved in 30 studies for major drug companies. He said Las Vegas has the undeserved reputation of having poor medical facilities and doctors, but he thinks that is slowly changing.

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