100 Reasons for a World Free of Pain

One in five people live with chronic pain^*

They’re our family, our friends, the people we work with every day. Their experiences are among our 100 reasons for a World Free of Pain. Their stories drive us forward every day and remind us why our vision matters. The efforts of our teams across Grünenthal help us move faster toward better treatments – and toward giving pain patients back the freedom pain has taken away from them.

* Treede RD, et al. Pain 2015 Jun; 156(6):1003-1007.

For others, pain can become isolating. And that’s not so much because people don’t care, but because they don’t always understand. Noemi Lewald, People & Organisational Development Manager, supports a family member with chronic pain in their foot that started at a young age. When friends asked about going out for a dance, on a hike, the family member wasn’t able to join as they used to before. And at some point, friends stopped asking. “They can’t join certain activities, and suddenly they’re left out – even if it’s unintentional.” A heartbreaking situation she had to witness.

Pain is invisible and the emotional toll that comes with it often goes unnoticed by the environment: cancellations, quiet endurance, the struggle to still keep up appearances. For those living with pain, these moments shape their daily reality.

Pain goes beyond physical experiences

Pain means physical limitations, but it also often carries an emotional weight. Many people describe feeling powerless when medication doesn’t work as expected or when the cause of their pain remains unclear. “I started wondering if this is how my life will be from now on,” Magdalena explains. “It felt like a dead end.”

It takes effort to regain control

Every pain patient and every pain story is different. What most have in common is the experience of losing control and the effort it takes to regain even a part of it. Magdalena relied on medication for some years and adjusted her lifestyle to keep her symptoms in check. Pain medication also helped Samir’s knee pain. Until this day no one knows where it came from – and it never came back. Noemi’s family member relies on pain medication which helped them create a happy life.

Whether through lifestyle adjustments, medication, or emotional support from others, each person found ways to cope. But their experiences changed the Grünenthal employees. They all speak about a deeper understanding for patients who live with pain every day. They know how exhausting it is, how frightening it can feel, and how urgently we need even better solutions. Solutions, that our R&D teams work on every day in identifying new effective molecules that could become tomorrow’s pain therapies.

Finding new substances is our biggest challenge

The search for new substances is a hunt for precision. Our teams work like molecular key makers, trying to craft the exact structure that fits the right biological lock. “It’s like searching for a needle in a haystack,” says Stefanie Ritter. Our Head Innovation Chemistry Laboratory and her team break molecules apart and rebuild them in new ways, refining them again and again. Many molecules fall short. For Stefanie, every attempt means getting one step closer to the one molecule that will change lives for the better.

New ideas and cutting-edge technologies drive innovation

Innovative technologies are transforming how we approach pain research. One breakthrough is the integration of AI‑enabled image analysis. Instead of manually examining microscopic images – a process that used to take days – AI helps our teams identify structures and extract information in just hours. “AI has been a huge leap forward,” Omar Mossad, Disease Biology Specialist, explains. “It allows us to analyse more data more precisely and uncover patterns we could never see manually.”

Human validation remains crucial when it comes to researching molecules. Omar and his team study primary human cells and tissue samples from human donors early in development. “This helps us see what truly happens inside the human body”, he says. Such an approach mirrors the human organism, bringing the potential for faster and more relevant medical advances, bypassing often unreliable results from non-human models. In doing so, it reduces our reliance on animal models, paving the way for faster, more ethically-aligned pathways to create patient-ready medicines.

Cross-functional work brings variety and healthy complexity. For Noemi Lewald, People & Organisational Development Manager, this diversity of viewpoints is part of the appeal. “In global projects, every country has an opinion, sometimes thirty,” she says laughing. “That diversity challenges you in the best way.” And it improves the outcome of projects.

Different cultures, expectations, and communication styles shape these collaborations. Xichao Zhou, Business Process Owner Demand Planning, sees this as a strength rather than a barrier. “I come from China, and there, efficiency is everything. But working internationally taught me the value of alignment and relationships. Understanding both leads to better solutions.”

Colleagues also say the emotional side of collaboration can be transformative. “In the beginning, I took things very personally,” Noemi recalls. “But learning to listen first to understand where people are coming from has made me better at my job.”

Some roles face spikes during critical phases, yet teamwork turns these moments into shared wins. “Knowing everyone is pulling in the same direction makes even intense phases manageable”, says Magdalena Poznanski, Director Integration & Alliances.