42 U.S.C. § 284q–1 — NIH opioid research

(a) In general. The Director of the National Institutes of Health (called "NIH" in this section) may intensify and coordinate NIH's basic, translational, and clinical research on: (1) understanding pain; (2) discovering and developing chronic pain therapies; and (3) developing non-opioid alternatives for effective pain treatment. (b) Priority and direction. When deciding how to prioritize and direct federally funded pain research, NIH must consider recommendations from the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee, working together with the Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force. This must also follow the National Pain Strategy, the Federal Pain Research Strategy, and the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2016–2020 — which says the relative burden of each disease and disorder should be a key factor in balancing federal research priorities.