Better Treatments and a Cure Start with Advocacy
As the number of people with food allergies skyrockets, the federal government is falling behind. Food allergy research is among the lowest funded of all major diseases.
We’re tackling a big challenge: Federal funding for food allergy research
As the number of people with food allergies skyrockets, the federal government is falling behind. Food allergy research is among the lowest funded of all major diseases.
More must be done, and FARE is leading the way. We are mobilizing our community across the country to deliver a simple message to policymakers in Washington: It is time to fund research for real treatments and, ultimately, a cure.
FARE has always been a powerful voice on behalf of the food allergy community, from patients to caregivers. We are mobilizing the food allergy community nationwide to:
- Increase federal research funding. It’s unacceptable that the federal government spends far less per person on food allergy research than any other major disease.
- Get new treatments to patients more quickly. The main treatment for food allergies—avoidance and epi—is not a treatment at all. An accident—or just a mistake—can have serious consequences. We will demand that regulators create a faster process for developing therapies and eliminating oral food challenge tests.
- Ensure groundbreaking therapies are covered by insurers and prescribed by doctors. Promising new treatments can’t help if insurers don’t cover them and providers don’t prescribe them.
FARE continues to be the largest private funder of food allergy research in the world. We’ve invested over $100 million. Our efforts have brought us to the brink of delivering the first real oral immunotherapy to patients—an amazing accomplishment.
Expanding the federal government’s commitment to treating and curing food allergies now would be transformative. That’s why it is our advocacy program’s goal.
We need your help to achieve it.
How FARE’s Advocacy Program will solve this problem
FARE has always been powered by local advocates leading the charge. We’ll solve this national problem the same way.
FARE’s advocacy staff will work with volunteer leaders nationwide to recruit others to join our cause. Throughout the rest of 2019 and into 2020, we will be organizing local advocate teams to take action to educate their members of Congress on our priorities.
We will focus on building long-term relationships with members of Congress and decision-makers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Relationships built over time create trust. We’re going to earn decision-makers’ trust by being persistent, by telling our stories, and by meeting them in our communities.
What it means to be an advocate
FARE advocates can choose how they want to participate in our collective effort.
If you’d like to send emails, post on your Facebook account, or make a few calls, that’s great. There are 32 million of us. If we make our voices heard, we can be an unstoppable force.
If you’re interested in doing more, you can join (or lead) a local advocacy team. Our teams will recruit new advocates and build relationships with local members of Congress through activities like in-person meetings. FARE’s advocacy staff will keep our teams informed, answer questions, and provide all the necessary resources.
The amount of time you invest is entirely up to you.
The most important thing is to take the first step and sign-up to add your name to our advocacy list.