The Cost and Value of Biomedical Innovation: Implications for Health Policy

High-cost drugs and devices that address significant unmet medical needs have generated much attention lately. New treatments for many cancers and for infections like Hepatitis C have the potential to increase life expectancy and quality of life for affected patients. Many more such treatments are in development. While a number of important breakthroughs have occurred in the past several decades, the increasing ability to target treatments based on a better understanding of genomics, systems biology, and other biomedical sciences could lead to more technologies with broader effects for targeted populations. Thus, biomedical innovation may have substantial future implications for population health and health care costs.

On Wednesday, October 1, the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform and the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics will host a half-day forum to discuss the serious coverage challenges that accompany breakthrough treatments, such as the much-discussed new treatment for Hepatitis C, Sovaldi. Researchers will present economic modeling simulations that illustrate the value and long-term effects of such treatments; and explore potential policy solutions for financing  biomedical innovations.

9:00 – 9:10 Welcome
Alice M. Rivlin, Leonard D. Schaeffer Chair in Health Policy Studies and Director, Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform
Senior Fellow, Economic Studies

9:10-10:15 Are New Breakthrough Treatments Worth Their Price? Assessing the Social Costs and Benefits of Biomedical Innovation

• Moderated by Alice M. Rivlin
• Dana Goldman, Leonard D. Schaeffer Chair and Director – USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics
• Douglas Dieterich, Professor of Medicine; Director, Continuing Medical Education – Mount Sinai School of Medicine
• Margaret Anderson, Executive Director – FasterCures

10:15-11:20 What Can We Learn from Recent Hepatitis C Treatments? Understanding the Pricing Process and Spending Consequences for Breakthrough Therapies

• Darius Lakdawalla , Quintiles Chair in Pharmaceutical Development and Regulatory Innovation; Professor – USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics
• Ryan Clary, Executive Director – National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable
• John Milligan, President and COO – Gilead
• Sam Nussbaum, CMO – Wellpoint, Inc.

11:20-11:30 Break

11:30-12:45 How Do We Ensure Future Innovation? Financing Breakthrough Therapies

• Moderated by Tomas Philipson, Daniel Levin Professor Public Policy Studies – University of Chicago
• Gregory W. Daniel, Managing Director for Evidence Development & Innovation, Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform, Fellow, Economic Studies – Brookings
• Al Engelberg, Trustee – The Engelberg Foundation
• Christopher F. Koller, President – The Milbank Memorial Fund
• Andrew Allison – Allison Health Care Consulting

12:45-1:00 Closing Remarks
Dana Goldman Leonard D. Schaeffer Chair and Director – USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics