Bloomberg Businessweek Targeting Pain (Sponsored Content)
Oct 5, 2025
Damian Sanchez, a jazz musician, shares his harrowing experience with a severe scooter accident and his refusal of pain medication due to family addiction history. Experts from Vertex Pharmaceuticals discuss innovative approaches to pain management, treating it as a disease rather than a symptom. They explore the potential of non-opioid treatments and the genetic factors behind pain-sensing proteins. Norm Buckley highlights the importance of understanding persistent pain, while Sanchez focuses on his recovery journey and passion for music.
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Pain Framed As Its Own Disease
- Vertex reframes acute pain as a disease to target directly rather than only as a symptom.
- They aim to use human genetics and mechanism-based research to find non-opioid interventions.
Musician's Choice To Decline Opioids
- Damian Sanchez describes his December 2022 scooter accident that shattered his tibia and fibula and left him in intense pain.
- He refused further pain medication due to family history of substance abuse and endured months of severe pain instead.
First Morphine Dose And Its Effects
- In the ER Damian received morphine intravenously and felt inebriated while doctors manipulated his leg.
- He recalls laughing and being scared, then declining further doses when the pain returned.