Sharing Voices in Health Care Policy: LillyPad

Public policy is more than acronyms or rhetoric. Public policy shapes the direction of our country, specifically our health system. Decisions made on Capitol Hill directly impact individuals and the pharmaceutical industry alike. That’s why in 2010, my colleagues and I at Eli Lilly and Company launched LillyPad. We’re committed to engaging in a public dialogue about the critical health issues that affect people from Washington, D.C. to the Heartland. 

So, why did we build LillyPad? Because we feel passionately about a lot of issues that are important to our company and our industry, and we know there’s plenty of passion well beyond our own walls. Policy issues like health care reform have been top-of-mind with the public for a long time. And industry watchers are placing an increased premium on trends like corporate citizenship. These are important dialogues, and we’re happy to provide a forum and participate. Ensuring that patients have access to safe and effective medicines, now and in the future, is our priority. We talk about public policy issues, corporate responsibility initiatives, and the work our employees do every day to make the world a healthier place to live.

Our goal is simple. We want to participate in a discussion that engages policymakers and shares the voices of people like you. On LillyPad, I try to demystify public policy and break down how things like health care reform, Medicare Part D, and even how patent reform can impact individuals, our industry, and health care.

LillyPad is a forum to discuss public policy that affects our lives. I discuss health policy topics in four broad categories:

• Access to Medicines- Patients deserve access to innovative medicines. Comprehensive prescription drug coverage benefits individual patients and promotes public health. On LillyPad we explore how Medicare Part D provides seniors with access to more affordable prescription drugs, presents greater choice and options in prevention of chronic disease, and brings peace of mind for patients and their families. Millions of patients rely on this benefit for access their medicines, and yet, proposed changes to Part D threaten to shift costs to other parts of the health care system, including beneficiaries. Preserving the benefit in its current form requires strong voices, and LillyPad provides an opportunity for us to share ours—and yours—in public policy debates.

• Future Medicines- The development of new medicines requires significant investments in medical innovation. Public policies from intellectual property, economic regulation, taxes, and trade all impact our ability to bring future medicines to market. By looking at the policies that surround intellectual property rights, we can develop the best ways of ensuring that innovator companies can continue to invest in medicinal innovation can address the unmet health challenges of today, and the unknown health challenges of the future.

• Safe and Effective Medicines- Did you know that roughly 95% of online pharmacies are operating out of compliance with U.S. laws? Patients deserve to know that the medicines
they sell have gone through the stringent regulation that ensures safety and efficacy. Through LillyPad, we can amplify awareness about the prevalence of counterfeit and substandard medicines, and help incite discussion on the ways to tackle this, and other, threats to the quality of medicines.

• Improving Public Health- Fostering innovative approaches to patient care that focus on delivering value and world-class outcomes to maximize resources and improve quality of life. By highlighting the activities of organizations like Men’s Health Network, LillyPad takes steps toward building the coalition of voices necessary to bring about the transformations that lead to better public health worldwide.

I encourage you to join the conversation and participate in the dialogue on LillyPad, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.

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