ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,503,439, issued on Dec. 23, was assigned to VERTEX PHARMACEUTICALS Inc. (Boston).

"Heteroaryl compounds for the treatment of pain" was invented by Mark Thomas Miller (Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.), Dennis James Hurley (San Marcos, Calif.), Timothy Donald Neubert (San Diego), Vijayalaksmi Arumugam (San Marcos, Calif.), Sara Sabina Hadida Ruah (La Jolla, Calif.), Jason McCartney (Cardiff by the Sea, Calif.), Jinglan Zhou (San Diego), Jaclyn Chau (San Diego), Robert Martin Demoret (San Diego), Senait G. Ghirmai (San Diego), Roman Askatovich Valiulin (San Diego), Alexander Fredrick Kintzer (Carlsbad, Calif.), David Robert Slochower (San Diego), Kathleen Aertgeerts (San Diego), Elizabeth Mary B...