November/December 2025

• NPAC submitted a formal comment in the Federal Register on the FDA’s Draft Guidance for Industry: Development of Non-Opioid Analgesics for Chronic Pain, a guide for research into the development of non-opioid analgesics targeting chronic pain.

• NPAC’s Executive Director, in her capacity as co-chair of the advocacy committee for the US Association for the Study of Pain (USASP), co-drafted USASP’s comment on the FDA’s Draft Guidance submitted in the Federal Register.

• NPAC participated in several efforts to fight a move by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to deny coverage for virtually all peripheral nerve blocks for chronic pain in 24 states.  

  • NPAC drafted and submitted formal comments. 

  • NPAC’s Executive Director co-drafted comments for the USASP, and 

  • NPAC’s Executive Director participated in developing the comments submitted by  the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) as well as a joint piece for Pain Medicine.

• NPAC’s Executive Director addressed the 2025-2026 class of Mayday Pain and Society Fellows in Washington D.C.

• NPAC’s Executive Director participated in the International Association for the Study of Pain’s (IASP) development of new policy briefs for global pain advocacy.

• NPAC’s Executive Director participated in the IASP’s Task Force on Animal Testing, an international Delphi process to develop new ethical guidelines for animal testing in pain research.

• NPAC testified in support of a new mitigation and transparency effort in Washington D.C. related to. medical debt. Several states and the District of Columbia have or are in the process of addressing medical debt. 

• NPAC continued with its advocacy on Capitol Hill to support NIH funding through the 2026 Appropriation Process, hosting meetings with the Appropriations’ Committee Chairperson and the Labor HHS Subcommittee Chair (the committee focused on NIH research). 

• NPAC’s Executive Director and NPAC’s Dawn Gibson were interviewed for an in-depth look at the impact of climate change on chronic pain for Inside Climate News.