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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA new group funded by pharmaceutical and medical products companies – and co-chaired by former Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson and Indiana Pacers President Jim Morris – will publicly launch itself today with a press event at the Indiana Statehouse.
Hoosiers Work for Health is a not-for-profit that wants to hold educational forums about health care reform proposals, making sure to point out which proposals would hurt the companies and researchers that produce medical innovations.
The Indiana group is one of 10 similar organizations in various states. It is funded with $350,000 from the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Researchers Association and some of its members. In Indiana, supporters include Eli Lilly and Co., Roche Group and Baxter BioPharma Solutions.
The group will not advocate for specific pieces of legislation or policy positions, according to Mike O’Connor, the project manager for Hoosiers Work for Health.
“Our real singular focus is on education,” said O’Connor, who served as a deputy mayor under Peterson. The group aims to hold publicity events at Indiana companies working on medical innovations, to distribute materials at health fairs and to stage public forums on health care.
These forums would be open to all viewpoints, O’Connor said, but added that Hoosiers Work for Health would make sure one of the viewpoints would stress the importance and impact of medical innovation on Indiana’s economy.
O’Connor said it’s important for Hoosiers to know, for example, that prescription drug “price controls, set at an arbitrary rate, mean there’s going to be less capacity in Indiana’s economy.”
Hoosiers Work for Health has also signed up partners that include the United Way of Central Indiana, the Indiana Health Industry Forum, as well as local chambers of commerce, research centers, labor groups, business groups, patient-advocacy organizations, heath care provider groups, and employees of Lilly and other biopharmaceutical companies.
At the kickoff event, Lilly CEO John C. Lechleiter will stress ongoing medical research and innovation work in Indiana. Representatives from other Indiana pharmaceutical research companies will also attend.
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