WASHINGTON, D.C. -- FasterCures today announced the members of its Value and Coverage Advisory Council, a diverse group of experts who will provide guidance on fostering a coverage and reimbursement environment that incentivizes biomedical innovation and ensures that patients have meaningful access to life-saving therapies.
“As pressure to cut health-care costs builds, the imperative to demonstrate value has become central,” said FasterCures Executive Director Margaret Anderson. “Even if we are successful at getting new treatments through the R&D and approval processes, there is no guarantee that the patients who need them will be able to access them. Building a better understanding of the evidentiary standards that payers consider when making coverage decisions and setting co-pays will help advance creative solutions.”
Representing varied interests and viewpoints – including patient groups, industry and payers – these nine advisors share a common drive to infuse patient perspectives into the coverage decision-making process. They will help guide FasterCures’ efforts to advance the goals of our new Value and Coverage program, which include:
- Educating patient-focused foundations about the evolving coverage landscape: the issues, players and programs that could affect patients’ access to specific therapies
- Demonstrating the value that medical research stakeholders, including patient groups, can bring to the conversation about value and coverage
- Providing a learning environment for key stakeholders in the care and cure enterprises who are trying to develop creative solutions to make sure reimbursement policies support true biomedical innovation
The FasterCures Value and Coverage Advisory Council members are:
- Joel Brill, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Predictive Health
- Mary Dwight, Senior VP for Policy and CF Community Affairs, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
- Shamiram Feinglass, MD, MPH, VP Government and Regulatory Affairs, Danaher Corporation
- Elizabeth Fowler, PhD, JD, VP Global Health Policy, Johnson & Johnson
- Jo Carol Hiatt, MD, MBA, FACS, Chair, National Product Council, Chair, Inter-Regional New Technologies Committee, The Permanente Federation
- Richard Pops, CEO, Alkermes
- Brian Rosen, JD, Chief Policy & Advocacy Officer, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
- Reed Tuckson, MD, FACP, Founder and Managing Director, Tuckson Health Connections
- Sean Tunis, MD, MSc, President & CEO, Center for Medical Technology Policy
“If patients are organized and empowered with the data and the insight gained through exposure to the entire drug development process,” comments Richard Pops, CEO of Alkermes and a member of the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s board, “they will be well positioned to have a voice that can lead to appropriate payer decisions.”
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Mary Dwight adds, “Stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem can rally around a therapy if there is transparency in how that therapy’s value was determined. We want to bridge the gap between patient groups and payers. This is a step towards that goal.”
To learn more, visit FasterCures’ Value and Coverage Program or contact Lisa Bo Feng, FasterCures’ associate director, Value and Coverage at [email protected].
The nature of service on the Value and Coverage Advisory Council is advisory, voluntary and participatory. The Council has no policy-making authority. Members are selected for their expertise and membership is not related to sponsorship; participants receive no compensation. There is an expectation for active involvement and mutual benefit from service.
About FasterCures
FasterCures, a center of the Milken Institute, is an action tank, determined to remove barriers to medical progress. We have only one goal: to save lives by speeding up and improving the medical research system. (www.fastercures.org)
Media Contact: Gillian Parrish, [email protected], Director, Communications
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