Newsletter | January 2024

Watch: 2023 in Review

Happy New Year from the PhRMA Foundation! In 2023, we provided grants and fellowships to more than 50 researchers, and we are looking forward to another productive year in 2024. Thank you to all our supporters for making this work possible.

Award Announcements

Medicare Drug Price Negotiation: Three Papers Win $25K for Exploring Challenges in IRA Implementation

The Inflation Reduction Act authorizes Medicare to negotiate the prices of top-selling drugs with manufacturers. The PhRMA Foundation partnered with the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy on a call for papers investigating crucial challenges facing the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in implementing this program. The Foundation awarded $25,000 Challenge Awards to three manuscripts tackling topics including the selection therapeutic alternatives and patient engagement.

Read the Winning Papers.

PhF Awards $1M for Patient-Centered Value Assessment Work

Two researchers received $500,000 Frontier Awards for studies applying patient-centered value assessment models to help guide health care decision-making. Learn More.

William Padula, PhD, of the University of Southern California will investigate applications of Generalized Risk-Adjusted Cost-Effectiveness (GRACE) for valuing breast and prostate cancer therapies.

Surachat Ngorsuraches, PhD, of Auburn University will assess the value of therapies for multiple sclerosis using patient-centered multicriteria decision analysis, with a focus on patients and families in the Deep South.

Seven Researchers Receive $25K Planning Grants to Develop Equity-Focused Studies on Digital Health Tools

The PhRMA Foundation awarded $25,000 planning grants to seven researchers to develop comprehensive research proposals examining the use of digital health technologies (DHTs) in populations underrepresented in clinical trials. These seven researchers will compete in 2024 to win one of two $500,000 research grants.

View the Planning Grant Awardees.

Apply Now: Translational Medicine and Value Assessment-Health Outcomes Research Awards

Before You Apply: Learn to Write Clear, Compelling Research Aims

Learn to write a specific aims page that succinctly conveys your research idea. In a recent webinar, Dr. David L. Veenstra of the University of Washington provided advice on crafting specific aims based his experience writing and reviewing grants, including as PhRMA Foundation reviewer.

Read the Summary Blog

Foundation Awards $1.7M in 2024

Drug Discovery and Delivery Awards

The PhRMA Foundation awarded 21 early-career scientists a total of nearly $1.7 million in 2024 fellowships and grants focused on drug discovery and delivery research. View the Awardees.

Meet Our Awardees

Hear directly from 2023 awardees about their research and career paths in the interviews below.

Dr. Rogerio Bataglioli: Altering Gut Bacteria to Treat Disease

Dr. Priscila Halicki: Assessing Natural Products as Potential TB Drugs

Made Harumi Padmaswari: Treating Muscle Diseases with Lasting Therapeutic Genes

Karlon Johnson: Examining How Stroke Patients Perceive Hospital Discharge Education

Sarah Bernhard: Developing Effective Chronic Pain Treatments with Fewer Side Effects

Dr. Shengqing (Stan) Gu: Improving Immunotherapy for Acute Myeloid Leukemia

From the Blog

From Health Policy Expert to Patient: Clinical Improvements and Patient Assistance in Eosinophilic Esophagitis

This is the third in a series of blog posts by PhRMA Foundation President Dr. Amy M. Miller on health policy from the perspective of a rare disease patient. In this post, she shares her experience with Dupixent and its patient assistance program.

Read Her Story.

Prioritizing Factors in U.S. Value Assessment From a General Citizen Perspective

With the implementation of Medicare drug price negotiation and the establishment of prescription drug affordability boards in some states, value assessment is likely to play an increasingly important role in patient access to medicines. In a new study by the PhRMA Foundation-funded Center for Pharmaceutical Value (pValue), a multistakeholder group prioritized additional, broader value elements to help inform health care policy decision-making.

Read the Blog.

PhF Awardee Creates New Tool Toward Rheumatoid Arthritis Precision Medicine

Dr. Fan Zhang, a 2022 recipient of the PhF Faculty Starter Grant in Translational Medicine, published a first-author paper in Nature outlining a novel tissue classification system for rheumatoid arthritis that could provide new insights into disease development and progression and identify potential drug targets.

Learn More.

Awardee News

Karlon H. Johnson Jr. (PhF23) of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine presented "The effect of patient-reported discharge education and guidance on achieving adequate transition of care after acute stroke hospitalization by race/ethnicity" at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting and Conference in Atlanta in November.

Dr. Meng Li (PhF22) of Tufts Medical Center won first place in the Innovation and Value Initiative's Valuing Innovation Project Call for Papers with her work titled, "Incorporating Real Option Value in Valuing Innovation: A Way Forward."

Dr. Vasco M. Pontinha (PhF21) has been appointed Assistant Professor at the VCU School of Pharmacy, where he is working on developing a research program focused on health care quality and pharmacoepidemiology.