A renewed grant from the Merck Company Foundation is enabling Cornell researchers affiliated with the Consumers, Pharmaceutical Policy and Health (CPPH) program in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management (PAM) in the College of Human Ecology to go forward with a number of research projects to help consumers in the realm of pharmaceuticals and health.

The three-year, $600,000 grant is being used at Cornell in a number of ways:

The grant of $200,000 per year for three years allows PAM to strengthen its CPPH program, which was launched three years ago when PAM received its initial Merck funding.

"The first three years have been highly productive, generating research and educational initiatives that would otherwise not have been developed," said Alan Mathios, professor in PAM and associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Human Ecology. "We look forward to continuing our efforts, expanding our current projects and developing new projects related to these themes concerning the causes, consequences and performance of public policies toward the pharmaceuticals industry, with particular emphasis on the interaction of public policies and private decisions for health and consumer well-being."

Cornell's award is part of more than $7 million in grants given to 12 academic institutions throughout the world; the other U.S. institutions are the University of Chicago, Columbia/Stanford Consortium on Medical Innovation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Pennsylvania.