So maybe you’re not getting the huge tax break you were hoping for, but there is some good news in the stimulus package for the pharmaceutical industry. Several pieces of the $787 billion plan focus on healthcare and medical research. For example:

>$1.1 billion is going toward comparative effectiveness research, including $300 million for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, $400 million for the National Institutes of Health; and $400 million for the Department for Health and Human Services (HHS). $1.5 million of the HHS funds are to be directed to the Institute of Medicine to produce a report by June 30, 2009 on national priorities for comparative effectiveness research. A 15-member Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research is also to be established to assist in coordinating the conduct or support of comparative effectiveness and related health services research and to advise the President and Congress on strategies regarding the infrastructure needs of comparative effectiveness research within the federal government.

>$1 billion is going to HHS to create a Prevention and Wellness Fund. Of that amount, $300 million is for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to carry out its immunization program under Section 317 of the Public Health Service Act, and $650 million is meant to carry out evidence-based clinical and community-based prevention and wellness strategies under the Service Act.

>$2 billion is going to the soon-to-be established Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, among other health information technology efforts. The office is to be run by a National Coordinator appointed by the HHS Secretary. The office will work to coordinate health information technology policy and programs within HHS and other executive branch agencies with the goal of creating a nationwide health information technology infrastructure for the electronic use and exchange of information. A main feature of the office’s strategy is to have an electronic health record for each person in the United States by the year 2014.

PharmTech would like to hear how your company feels about the stimulus package and the efforts noted above—all of which will be unfolding in the coming months.