Pain Pills Made From Sea-Snail Spit Could Be More Powerful Than Morphine

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Chemicals from sea snail saliva can be made into pain pills that work as well as morphine, but without the risk of addiction. Researchers have already used the saliva of marine cone snails as a potent painkiller, but it has to be injected into the spinal cord with a special implanted pump, which limits its use.

Researchers led by David J. Craik of the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland in Australia figured out how to make the peptide orally active, so patients could simply pop snail-saliva pills.