[3] Ziconotide is a chemical derived from the Conus magus toxin that acts as a painkiller with a potency 1000 times that of morphine.

Discovered by Dr. Baldomero Olivera at University of Utah, it was developed for treatment of chronic and intractable pain caused by AIDS, cancer, neurological disorders and other maladies, and was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December 2004 under the name Prialt.

Ziconotide works by blocking calcium channels in pain-transmitting nerve cells, rendering them unable to transmit pain signals to the brain.

[4] This marine species occurs in the Red Sea and in the Indian Ocean off Madagascar and the Mascarene Basin.

It is also found over a wide area of the Pacific Ocean from Indonesia to Japan and to the Marshall Islands, Wallis and Futuna and Fiji, but mainly centered on the Philippines; off Australia (Queensland).