May/June 2025
NPAC helped spearhead an advocacy strategy to protect pain research, working jointly with the US Association for the Study of Pain, the Chronic Pain Research Alliance, and the US Pain Foundation, including:
sending a letter to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees signed by 60 professional and patient-focused pain organizations, collectively representing the interests of millions of scientists, healthcare providers, and people living with pain;
providing a series of advocacy training seminars to teach researchers and people living with pain about the Congressional budget process and how to advocate on Capitol Hill;
developing talking points and a one-pager itemizing key facts about pain and pain research;
participating in weekly strategy sessions as Congress moves forward with Appropriations; and
hosting targeted meetings to begin in July with Capitol Hill offices that include a designated policy expert, a researcher, and a person living with pain.
NPAC filed a substantive adverse comment to the Department of Energy’s proposal, “Rescinding New Construction Requirements Related to Nondiscrimination in Federally Assisted Programs or Activities,” which threatened to undermine the accessibility of federal buildings.
NPAC submitted a comment to the Joint Meeting of the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee and the Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee, which were considering the relabeling of Extended-Release/Long-Acting Opioid Analgesic, articulating our concern that such an action may further imperil care for people who require such medications to manage pain.
NPAC’s Executive Director participated in the two-day May meeting of the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council.
Several NPAC members participated in the 2025 Annual Scientific Meeting in Toronto, hosted by NPAC advisor and President of the Canadian Pain Society, Hance Clarke.
NPAC’s Executive Director, Kate Nicholson, and advisors, Sean Mackey and Ethan Nadelmann, gave TED-type keynote talks at the Convocation Hall at the University of Toronto.
Nicholson also organized and presented a topical symposium on Resilience at the CPS meeting with panelists Ethan Nadelman and Scott Fishman.