Friday, February 24, 2017

Consulting to Drug Companies

One of the leading consulting firms in this field is Precision Health Economics.  Its employees include leading economists and health care experts at the nation’s top universities. The company is doing quite well because it focuses on consulting for companies with very high priced drugs.

Among its clients are three leading makers of new hepatitis C treatments (which can cost as much as $1,000 per day): Gilead, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and AbbVie. When AbbVie funded a special issue of the American Journal of Managed Care on hepatitis C research, current or former associates of Precision Health Economics wrote half of the issue. A Stanford professor who had previously consulted for the firm served as guest editor-in-chief.

Precision Health Economics allows drug makers to review articles by its academics prior to publication in academic journals. Such prior review is controversial in higher education because it can be seen as impinging on academic freedom.

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