THIS COULD BE BIG: New pain medicine may be safer alternative to opioids.

For now, the drug from Vertex Pharmaceuticals is called VX-548. But in trials of patients undergoing abdominoplasties (tummy tucks) and foot bunion surgeries, VX-548 performed better than placebo at easing post-op pain, with no major safety issues seen.

It didn’t bring superior pain relief compared with the opioid Vicodin (hydrocodone bitartrate/acetaminophen), the trial found, but it scored similarly to Vicodin on a standard measure called the Numeric Pain Rating Scale.

Non-addictive but as effective as Vicodin could be a game-changer — unless and until the FDA finds an excuse to slap as many controls on it as they have opioids.