Scientists join the fray in fight against US opioid epidemic

Chemists and engineers are turning their attention to trying to alleviate some of the suffering caused by the opioid epidemic ravaging the US, driven by an unprecedented surge in deaths from fentanyl and other synthetic opiates. Overall, opioid-related deaths in the US spiked from approximately 18,500 in 2007 to more than 47,000 a decade later, according to the US National Institutes of Health. Overdose deaths linked to synthetic opioids in the country rose more than 45% from 2016 to 2017, the country’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates. A new CDC report identifies fentanyl as the deadliest drug in the country, causing more than 18,300 deaths in 2016.