ITHACA, N.Y. -- A new initiative -- Consumers, Pharmaceutical Policy and Health -- is under way in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management (PAM) at Cornell University, thanks to a Merck Company Foundation pharmaceutical policy grant.

The renewable grant of $200,000 a year for three years involves at least eight faculty members and is allowing PAM, which is in the College of Human Ecology, to undertake research projects and develop graduate course content on pharmaceutical policy. The department also will issue a series of pharmaceutical policy working papers, sponsor seminars on pharmaceutical policy and offer fellowships, research assistantships and internships to graduate students.

Alan Mathios, professor of PAM, is the project leader, and Sharon Tennyson, associate professor, is the project coordinator.

"Our department already conducts research on some pharmaceutical policy issues, such as the impact of FDA [Food and Drug Administration] regulation on the rate at which consumers are exposed to tobacco cessation products and whether such exposure leads to attempted quits," explains Mathios. "We also house the Sloan Program in Health Administration, a two-year master of health administration degree. This new grant demonstrates, in part, the value of having a policy-based health administration program within the department. The Merck Company Foundation grant allows us to expand our focus on pharmaceutical issues and provides a source of funding for research and educational activities related to pharmaceutical policy issues."

Specific research projects in early stages of development in PAM include an evaluation of the FDA's regulation of direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs. The researchers will extensively catalog pharmaceutical advertising in print and on television to measure, for example, consumers' exposure to advertising and actual product use. A second research project is analyzing the impact of state Medicaid pharmacy regulations on recipients' access to care and the quality of care received. A third research project is exploring the impact of managed care on pharmaceutical access and cost.The new initiative also includes funds to provide a fellowship to a master's student in business administration in Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management. "Through this program we also hope to be able to provide some research funds to faculty associated with the Cornell Genomics Initiative, the Cornell Center for Policy Research and the Weill Cornell Medical Center," explains Mathios.

Related World Wide Web sites: The following sites provide additional information on this news release.o Information on Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell:

http://www.human.cornell.edu/PAM/