Seems like this was primarily designed for military applications. To quote the article: > The pill from AcelRx Pharmaceuticals contains the same decades-old pa

Seems like this was primarily designed for military applications. To quote the article: > The pill from AcelRx Pharmaceuticals contains the same decades-old painkiller often given in IV form or injection to surgical patients and women in labor. [..] The pills contain sufentanil, a chemical cousin of the opioid fentanyl. So this drug is already highly available in hospitals via IV, this turns the IV into a pill, and the primary use-cases seem to be on the battlefield (where placing an IV may be dangerous both for sanitary reasons but also for practical reasons, like bullets whizzing by). > Gottlieb noted the pill was a high priority for the Department of Defense, which helped fund testing, because it wanted a way to provide fast pain relief to injured soldiers. The tablet, placed under the tongue with a dispenser, starts reducing pain in 15 to 30 minutes. PS - Not trying to imply the pill is bad because it was designed for military usage, more trying to balance out the misleading title "FDA approves painkiller 1,000 times more powerful than morphine." That "1,000 times more powerful" drug is already common as heck and decades old, this is a new DELIVERY SYSTEM.