The House and Senate Appropriations Committees are working on the FY2026 budget bills now. The President has proposed a 40% cut to NIH’s budget.
Pain research at the NIH has long had a tiny budget relative to other diseases and conditions with lesser burdens affecting lesser numbers of Americans. But all that changed dramatically in 2018 when it was clear that the lack of effective treatments for pain had meant relying on opioids for pain management.
As a result, Congress increased the overall funding of pain research across the NIH and started the HEAL (The Helping to End Addiction Long-term®) Initiative. A little less than half of the HEAL funding goes to pain research and the other half to Substance Use Disorders (SUD) research.
Since 2018, great progress has been made in conducting research to better understand pain, determine the best way to make appropriate use of the treatments we have and find new treatments.
Now is not the time to stop that funding, just when we are beginning to see the fruits of that investment emerge. Please use your voice to tell Congress to protect the NIH Pain Research budget and the HEAL Initiative.