The Pentagon has awarded nearly $41 million to develop a ketamine-infused wafer designed to provide fast-acting pain relief to wounded soldiers without relying on injections or opioids. The product could eventually reach military personnel through an emergency regulatory pathway, but it still faces clinical, regulatory and manufacturing hurdles before it can be deployed.
Ketamine has had quite the career. From operating rooms to underground clubs to psychedelic therapy clinics, this dissociative anesthetic has spent decades moving between medicine and counterculture. Now it could be taking on another job: treating wounded U.S. soldiers in the field. And the Pentagon is putting nearly $41 million behind the effort.
In February 2026, the Department of Defense awarded Singapore-based pharmaceutical company iX Biopharma a $40.95 million contract to develop Wafermine, a small, ketamine-infused wafer designed to dissolve under the tongue. The goal is to provide fast-acting pain relief to soldiers suffering serious injuries, potentially without the need for injections or opioid-based medications.
But here’s where things get interesting: the military may be able to deploy the product before it receives full FDA approval. According to Military Times, the company is pursuing an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) that could allow Wafermine to reach military personnel before receiving full regulatory approval. And a recent federal declaration has opened a potential path forward.
A Military Emergency, a Ketamine Wafer, and an Emergency Authorization Pathway
On September 3, the Department of Health and Human Services published an emergency use declaration following a July 15 determination by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that U.S. forces faced a military emergency or a significant potential for one.
The declaration specifically references threats involving chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear agents, as well as conventional attacks capable of causing life-threatening injuries.
According to the government, those injuries could cause severe pain and complications such as shock and respiratory distress
Under the declaration, the FDA can consider emergency use authorization for certain military-supported drugs intended to manage acute pain resulting from the specified threats, even before they receive full approval.
Importantly, this doesn’t mean Wafermine has been authorized, that the military has already deployed it, or that a particular attack is imminent. It means the regulatory pathway now exists.
In a September announcement, iX Biopharma said it expected to complete its emergency authorization submission by the fourth quarter of 2026. The $41 million contract also supports Phase 3 clinical development, with the longer-term goal of securing full FDA approval.
Ketamine Was Already Gaining Ground in Military Pain Management
For all the novelty surrounding a ketamine wafer, the drug itself is hardly new to battlefield medicine.
Military medics have used ketamine for years because it can provide effective pain relief and may be particularly useful for patients at risk of dangerously low blood pressure. Unlike many conventional opioid painkillers, ketamine generally has less impact on respiratory drive at analgesic doses, although it carries its own risks and requires appropriate medical monitoring.
And the numbers suggest that its role on the battlefield has been growing.
A study published in BMJ Military Health examined 5,965 patients treated during U.S. military operations between 2010 and 2019. Over that decade, ketamine’s share of documented pain-medication administrations rose from 14.2% to 52.6%. Meanwhile, opioids declined from 85.8% to 47.4%. By 2019, ketamine had overtaken opioids in recorded administrations.
The researchers also found that ketamine tended to be given to more severely injured patients. While the retrospective findings don’t prove that ketamine alone caused the decline in opioid use, they suggest an important shift in battlefield pain management.
So why the wafer? Ketamine is commonly administered intravenously or through intramuscular injections. Wafermine, by contrast, is designed to deliver the drug through the tissues beneath the tongue and into the bloodstream.
That could offer logistical advantages in certain emergencies, although the formulation still needs to demonstrate its safety and effectiveness for its intended use.
But There’s Also a Manufacturing Problem
The Pentagon’s plans for the ketamine wafer have encountered an obstacle that has nothing to do with pharmacology.
An October investigation by Politico found that iX Biopharma’s proposed U.S. manufacturing partner, Orion Specialty Labs, lacked the Nevada state license required to operate.
The complication is that the contract requires U.S.-based manufacturing. It was also awarded through a sole-source process, meaning the government selected iX Biopharma without competitive bidding, citing the company’s specialized capabilities.
None of this necessarily means Wafermine won’t reach military personnel. But the licensing issue could complicate the timeline for turning the experimental formulation into a deployable medical product.
From Club Drug to Combat Medicine
Perhaps the most revealing part of this story is how differently the same substance can be viewed depending on who’s using it.
Ketamine remains a controlled substance with recognized risks, including dissociation, impaired coordination, and potential misuse. It’s also an established anesthetic, an increasingly prominent tool in pain management, and the subject of considerable interest in mental health research.
Now, the U.S. military is investing tens of millions of dollars in yet another application.
There’s a certain irony in watching a substance so often discussed through the lens of recreational drug use become the centerpiece of a major government-backed medical development program.
But ketamine’s medical potential isn’t some futuristic revelation. The military has already been relying on it for years. What’s new is the wafer, not the drug’s established role in battlefield pain management.
And if Wafermine eventually receives authorization, the next chapter in ketamine’s complicated history may unfold somewhere very far from a clinic or a dance floor.
