The Laura and John Arnold Foundation (LJAF), a philanthropic organization based in Houston, donated $7.2 million to several institutions to support work on projects that could combat the rise in prescription prices.
A survey by health-care pricing firm DRX showed the costs of an estimated 3,000 brand name drugs doubled by 60 percent and quadruped by 20 percent in different cases since December 2014. Numerous critics have called for reforms out of concern that these raises would wreak financial havoc on budgets for patients and governments.
Recipients highlighted in the Foundation’s announcement include a $4.7 million allocation toward Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s Evidence Driven Drug Pricing Project and $1.6 million for a similar initiative at the Oregon Health & Science University.
MSKCC’s team of researchers will examine potential new payment models for specialty drugs like Novartis’s performance-based strategy for heart failure drug Entresto whereas scientists at OHSU will analyze cost-effective legislation to support alternative pricing models.
Other beneficiaries of this grant include the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
LJAF Vice President Kelli Rhee explained in a statement, “There are major flaws in our drug-purchasing structures, and we must address these issues as part of the effort to improve patient health and manage the cost of care.
“These projects will help to identify sustainable, evidence-based drug-pricing solutions that target the root causes of the broken market and can serve as models for reform across the entire health care system,” she said.
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Filed Under: Drug Discovery
