American Brain Coalition

The American Brain Coalition (ABC) is a non-profit organization comprised of over 100 of the United States' leading professional neurological, psychological, and psychiatric associations and patient organizations, clinicians, researchers, academia, industry, and government agencies. We are a powerful voice for people with brain disorders bringing together organizations that represent concerned patients, families, and professionals. This collaborative voice is used to create awareness and understanding, and advocate for increased research and resources that will improve patients' quality of life and enhance a national commitment toward cures for patients with brain disorders. Advocacy continues to be an important function of the ABC for its members. Many look to the ABC advocacy program as a vital resource, while others use ABC to complement their own robust policy efforts. Either way, the ABC is committed to staying abreast of and disseminating information on brain and health federal policy issues. For those who are in need of additional resources, the ABC offers a toolkit for meeting with members of Congress and their legislative staff, as well as white papers to use and distribute on the Hill. Additionally, our online legislative action center allows members to easily contact their Senators or Representative about issues that impact the brain community. The ABC continues to be an instrumental partner with the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus. Established in 2011 by co-chairs Reps Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), it seeks to raise awareness about the millions of Americans afflicted with neurological disorders or mental illnesses and promotes a better understanding of how the brain develops, functions, and ages. The ABC has organized and hosted numerous CNC briefings to highlight specific topics as examples of the important work and needs of our members.The American Brain Coalition (ABC) has conducted numerous meetings and hosted webinars to engage our leadership and membership in one of the four American Brain Coalition Innovation Initiative (ABCI2) strategies exploring the use of an adaptive approval pathway for repurposed therapeutics to incentivize CNS product development. Following these discussions, it became increasingly clear that the creation of aNeuroscience Center of Excellence at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)would be an effective mechanism to encourage innovation both in drug development and regulation of brain-focused therapeutics utilizing a modelwith demonstrated success. ABC leadership has made this effort a 2021 priority and will lead the advocacy effort by providing our members with the materials needed so we can advocate together on a creation of this Center of Excellence. Resources and tools are available on the ABC web site.The ABC regularly develops and offers educational programming opportunities to our membership and the public via webinars, webcasts, other social media outlets, and educational sessions during Membership Meetings. Members collaborate by circulating materials about important events going on within their organizations, as well as circulating materials to one another that our members might find useful. We publish a biweekly newsletter to membership organizations that highlights the news and events of ourmembers. The publication offers each of our members a glimpse into one another organization and encourages the development of coordinated activities on a shared agenda. The newsletter also includes important updates from our government agency friends, as well as neuroscience stories featured in the news.