We are pleased to announce an exciting new direction for the PhRMA Foundation. We have built on the successes of our past, evolved with an ever-changing health care system, and enhanced programs to reach beyond traditional research and development and embrace what is most important to patients.
New Mission Statement
The PhRMA Foundation works to improve public health by proactively investing in innovative research, education and value-driven health care.
We achieve our mission by:
- Remaining scientifically independent and nimble in an ever-evolving health care ecosystem;
- Investing in the patient perspective, including patient-centered value assessment, to empower patients and improve outcomes and efficiencies;
- Supporting and encouraging young scientists to pursue novel projects to advance innovative and transformative research efforts;
- Using data, sound methodologies and advanced technology to inform decisions; and
- Supporting collaborative efforts that promote innovative research, support emerging data science and drug discovery, and build frameworks that accurately characterize the value of outcomes for a wide variety of stakeholders.
There are three key areas to support our new direction:
Value Assessment Initiative
In recent years, concerns about rising U.S. health care costs led to interest in measuring the value of health care. But to be effective for patients and useful for payers, these value assessments must be methodologically rigorous and reflect outcomes that matter to patients.
In 2017, the PhRMA Foundation launched the Value Assessment Initiative, supporting the development of tools and frameworks that assess the value of medicines and health care services. The Value Assessment Initiative is a comprehensive effort to move toward a value-driven health care system that prioritizes both scientific evidence and patient preferences to improve outcomes and reduce health care spending.
The Foundation’s Challenge Awards, Research Awards and Center of Excellence Awards promote research, innovation and the development of patient-focused strategies that facilitate value-driven decision-making.
At the Foundation’s four Centers of Excellence in Value Assessment, researchers and health care practitioners are advancing innovative approaches to collecting real-world evidence and tracking individual preferences. Armed with this knowledge, they are building frameworks that reflect the value of treatments and outcomes for a wide range of stakeholders. The Foundation has invested over $4.3 million in these programs since the program’s inception.
Core Program Restructuring
Over the past year, we have laid the groundwork to help grantees fulfill critical needs across the pharmaceutical industry by reshaping our core programs. In 2020, we began the roll-out four new programs: Drug Discovery, Drug Delivery, Translational Medicine, and Outcomes Research. Driving this restructuring is our shift from a skill and discipline-based focus to a broader, multidisciplinary scope that covers more territory across the drug development spectrum.
In this new structure the PhRMA Foundation’s 56-year history of providing career-starting grants and fellowships to young scientists will continue. The awards attract and encourage young scientists to pursue research as their career choice and assists in training the next generation of innovators. Our new structure will enhance our reputation for supporting research using solid methodologies, novel and innovative science, as well as build on our credibility as a source of respected science. Through these awards we can better serve our young scientists.
New Program – Use and Application of Data and Technology in Health Care
With the support of our member companies, we will forge new pathways in value assessment and other promising fields, like digital medicine. Health IT is poised to spur innovation throughout the biopharmaceutical industry. By leveraging real-world data and sophisticated technologies, we can learn more about patients, expand access to quality services, reduce excessive spending, and achieve greater outcomes. The Foundation’s new Data and Technology program will bring much-needed funding opportunities to this emerging area.
This Program will provide a structure for transforming data into health care decision-making with direct applications in population health, value of medicine analyses, treatment decisions, patient communications, and ultimately, patient outcomes.
As we evolve the infrastructure of the Foundation’s core programs, our commitment to people and patients has never been stronger. Foundation scientists are bringing real change to medicine and solving some of the greatest health care dilemmas of our time. And it all starts right here!
