Established in 1999, The Merck Company Foundation's Program on Pharmaceutical Policy Issues (PPPI) is designed to help academic institutions around the world conduct independent research in pharmaceutical and health policy issues. The goal is to enhance pharmaceutical policy research and build a strong foundation for more informed public policy on health care issues. Through the PPPI, academic centers receive approximately $600,000 over three years to strengthen policy research, teaching and dissemination capacity.

Merck's PPPI seeks to encourage research in the following areas:

• Access to medicines and biomedical innovations in the developing world
• Economics of the pharmaceutical industry, including incentives and disincentives for innovation
• Evaluation of new therapies, health care technology and biomedical innovation
• Evolving market characteristics and changing market dynamics for pharmaceuticals, including competition and pricing
• Global issues affecting health care quality and patient access
• Analyses of factors that contribute to sustained innovation in the pharmaceutical industry
• Effect of health care financing strategies and reimbursement policies on pharmaceuticals and patient access
• Industry regulatory and industrial policy issues, including intellectual property and global trade issues
• Consumer health promotion strategies

Selection of PPPI academic centers is based upon a competitive application and review process. This process is informed by the recommendations of an independent Academic Advisory Board, which includes international experts in public health, economics, public policy and health services research.

To date, Merck's PPPI has provided more than $11 million in grant support toward programs on topics including access to medicines, health care resource allocation, incentives for innovation, health care and pharmaceutical reimbursement, comparative perspectives on health system reform, and the economics of the pharmaceutical industry.

To view the research and working papers from some of the PPPI grantees, please click on the links below:

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Biomedical Innovation
• University of Chicago, The Program for Pharmaceutical Policy
• University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division (HEARD)
• University of Occupational and Environmental Health (Japan), Program on Health Systems Adapted for an Aging Society
• University of Pennsylvania, USA
• Cornell University
• University of Victoria, Australia
• University Carlos III, Spain
• University Pompeu Fabra Spain
• London School of Economics and Political Science, Program for Advanced Research and Training in Pharmaceutical Policy Issues
• The Columbia/Stanford Consortium
• University of Costa Rica
• University of Florence and Institutions Markets Technologies, Lucca Institute for Advanced Studies (Italy)
• Click here to download the Incentives for Innovation: New Perspectives PPPI Policy Conference 2004 (PDF* 113KB)

For further information regarding the PPPI or other Merck Company Foundation programs, please contact The Merck Company Foundation at
+1-908-423-2042.