Innovating for the invisible ailment: the ASX-listers combatting chronic pain

Imagine living with a persistent, debilitating discomfort for weeks, months, or even years on end. An ailment that impacted your work and livelihood.

Unfortunately, this scenario is far from a stretch of the imagination for more than three million Australians who live with some form of chronic pain.

Doctors have investigated chronic pain for years, but the recent emergence of long COVID - where those infected with COVID-19 experience symptoms long after their diagnosis - has brought further attention to this space.

That's because one of long COVID's major symptoms is musculoskeletal pain - a condition experienced by many chronic pain sufferers who are often limited to managing their discomfort with prescription opioids.

Because of the risks associated with these analgesics, ASX-listed biotechs and pharmaceutical companies are hard at work to develop better treatments for chronic pain sufferers.

With everything from a nerve repair candidate to cannabinoid formulations in the works, it's possible a homegrown solution could lead to better patient outcomes in a sector where the standard of care is often expensive, addictive and has only fleeting efficacy.