Merck Foundation gives three-year, $600,000 grant for new PAM program

By Susan Lang

A new initiative -- Consumers, Pharmaceutical Policy and Health -- is under way in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management (PAM) in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell, thanks to a Merck Company Foundation grant on pharmaceutical policy issues.

Tennyson

Mathios

The grant of $200,000 per year for a period of three years, which is renewable, is allowing the department to undertake various research projects and develop graduate course content on pharmaceutical policy, issue a series of pharmaceutical policy working papers, sponsor seminars on pharmaceutical policy and offer fellowships, research assistantships, and internships to graduate students in this area.

Alan Mathios, professor of PAM, is the project leader and Sharon Tennyson, associate professor of PAM, is project coordinator.

"Our department already conducts research on some pharmaceutical policy issues, such as the impact of FDA regulation on the rate at which consumers are exposed to tobacco cessation products and whether such exposure leads to attempted quits," explained Mathios. "We also house the Sloan Program in Health Administration, a two-year master's of health administration degree. This new grant demonstrates, in part, the value of having a policy-based health administration program within the department. The Merck Foundation grant allows us to expand our focus on pharmaceutical issues and provides a source of funding for research and educational activities related to pharmaceutical policy issues."

Specific research projects in early stages of development include an evaluation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's regulation of direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs. The researchers will extensively catalog pharmaceutical advertising in print and on television to measure, for example, consumers' exposure to advertising and actual product use. A second research project is analyzing the impact of state Medicaid pharmacy regulations on the access to care and quality of care received by Medicaid beneficiaries. A third research project is exploring the impact of managed care on pharmaceutical access and cost.

The new initiative also includes funds to take greater advantage of the strengths of Cornell. For example, the program includes funds to provide a fellowship to a MBA student in the Johnson Graduate School of Management. "Through this program we hope to be able to provide some research funds to faculty associated with the Genomics Initiative, the Cornell Center for Policy Research and the Weill Medical Center," explained Mathios.

The new program involves at least eight faculty members in PAM and already is under way. Faculty from other departments and colleges at Cornell who are engaging in pharmaceutical policy research are encouraged to contact Mathios about potential funding opportunities.