A Revolution: Democratising Access to Medication

Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador, interviews Daniel Liljenquist, former US Senator and Lead Architect and Board Chair of Civica Rx.

Ira Pastor Comments:

A generic drug is a pharmaceutical drug that contains the same chemical substance as a drug that was originally protected by chemical patents, and are typically allowed for sale after the patents on the original drugs expire. Once generic drugs enter the market, competition often leads to substantially lower prices for both the original brand-name product and its generic equivalents. In 2014, according to an analysis by the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, generic drugs accounted for 88% of the 4.3 billion prescriptions filled in the United States, and the use of generic drugs in the United States led to US$254 billion in health care savings. The global market for generic drugs is estimated to reach $533 billion by 2021, up from $352 billion in 2016, and was growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.7% during that period. Unfortunately, in recent years things have been amiss in the generics drug segment whereby we have been seeing a rapid rise in the prices for many generic drugs that have been around for many years, if not decades.There has been major consolidation, with a handful of major companies dominating the generic drugs market (some units of big pharma), and there is an estimated backlog of 000s of generic drugs awaiting FDA approval. All of these factors have played a role in how both rare and common drugs, such as EpiPens, can shoot up in price so rapidly.

Daniel Liljenquist:

Mr. Daniel Liljenquistis an American businessman and politician, who served in the Utah State Senate, and is the Lead Architect and Board Chair of Civica Rx,a nonprofit generic drug company established to reduce chronic generic drug shortages and price gauging.

Dan also serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer for Intermountain Healthcare (a not-for-profit healthcare system that is the largest healthcare provider in the Intermountain West region of the United States, provides hospital and other medical services in Utah, Idaho, and Nevada, and has 37,000 employees) where he oversees Intermountain’s Enterprise Initiative and Market Intelligence & Planning Offices. Intermountain was one of the founding groups behind Civica Rx. Dan has degrees in Economics from Brigham Young University, and Law from University of Chicago Law School.

On this ideaXme episode we will hear from Dan about:

His background and his personal journey through the world of economics, law, and politics, and into the world of non-profit healthcare cost containment. The background story leading up to the decision of the formation of Civica Rx. Civica Rx's development from start-up in 2018, to a robust network of 45 health systems, representing 1200 hospitals, with a total of 18 medications in production. Civica Rx's plans to bring over 100 medications to market in the next five years and building its own manufacturing capability. Civica Rx's partnerships on the international manufacturing and regulatory fronts.

Credits: Ira Pastor interview video, text, and audio.

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