New Jersey Governor Chris Christie held the third formal meeting of President Trump’s ongoing Commission on Combatting Drug Addiction and Opioid Crisis, where officials in the pharmaceutical industry and government detailed new partnerships and efforts in the hopes of limiting the use of opioid prescriptions for combatting pain and recommending new treatments for pain management without the use of addictive substances.  

National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins advised the commission that the agency is looking to build partnerships with researchers across academia, government, prescribers and patients to “cut in half the time needed to make available prescriptions that are non-addictive.” 

He said areas like developing “potent but non-addictive drugs” for pain relief and offering new avenues for treatment would become a top priority for the partnership. 

Collins noted that similar efforts have been taken on by NIH with regard to both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease and said the body “can do the same with opioids.”