Marc Harrison, MD, president and CEO of Intermountain Healthcare, said he thinks a new generic drug company led by Intermountain Healthcare and three other health systems will eventually work with 1,000-plus hospitals, NEJM Catalyst reports.
Here are four things to know about the nonprofit generic drug company.
1. Last month, Intermountain Healthcare and three other health systems — St. Louis-based Ascension; Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health; and St. Louis-based SSM Health — said they would launch a nonprofit generic drug company. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is also involved in the hospital venture but has provided no financial support for the project.
2. The generic drug company aims to address the high costs and shortages of generic medications.
3. In an interview with NEJM Catalyst from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Dr. Harrison said "other systems have been coming out of the woodwork" after the announcement. "We started with about 450 hospitals. We've added well over 100 hospitals in the last couple weeks, and I think we're going to top out at over a thousand hospitals."
4. Dr. Harrison added the systems will "go dark for about a year" to work on the company, but expect to re-emerge in the first quarter of 2019 "as we get rolling."
For the full interview with NEJM Catalyst, click here.
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