FoCUS Project

Financing and reimbursement of Cures in the US

Status: Active

Medical research is making significant advances toward treatments that cure major diseases, but these treatments will often entail very high up-front costs.  The FoCUS Project targets the need for new innovative financing and reimbursement models for curative medicines in the US that ensure (1) patient access for needed treatments; (2) affordability for public and private payers; and (3) the sustainability of innovation by manufacturers.

FoCUS activities center around the design, rapid cycle prototyping, and piloting of  financing and reimbursement models for curative therapies in the US, with targeted pilot launches  occurring throughout the life of the project.  All financing and reimbursement designs will be derived from work done by disease specific multi-stakeholder Target Area Groups (TAGs) in coordination with NEWDIGS team members, MIT Faculty and others. Designs will be rigorously evaluated through modeling and simulation exercises, evaluated through product specific case studies in NEWDIGS Design Labs and vetted.  Learnings will be disseminated broadly to inform the stakeholder community, pilot implementations and scale up.  Initial priorities for action are curative gene therapies and durable oncology treatments.

Find research briefs from the FoCUS Project in Papers and Publications.

November 2018: NPR: "A Search For New Ways To Pay For Drugs That Cost A Mint"

July 2018: FoCUS response to Health and Human Services "Blueprint" Request for Information

Detailed information can be found in the FoCUS Project Prospectus.