November 3, 2009
The best way to advance personalized medicine is by encouraging patient choice and practicing evidence-based medicine, says Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, this year’s recipient of the Award for Public Service from the Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.
This annual award from the institute honors a person who has made significant contribution to the advancement of rational drug-therapy initiatives across society. The award acknowledges McClellan’s advocacy of pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine throughout his career. Currently the director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution, he has also served as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. McClellan, who is both a medical doctor and economist, will receive the award and present a seminar on November 5 at 4:00 p.m. in the Blue Cross Blue Shield Auditorium of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health on the Chapel Hill campus. A reception will immediately follow.
Watch the Award Presentation
“Dr. McClellan has been willing to lead by example, making policy that puts the individual patient in a place of priority,” says Howard McLeod, PharmD, director of IPIT and the Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor. “The fact that the FDA and CMMS take pharmacogenomics seriously has caused medical practice to follow suit.”
McClellan’s work at the Engelberg center focuses on developing practical policy solutions for health-care reform that will reduce the growth of health-care spending and improve quality. He also continues to be a driving force for personalizing the health care that Americans receive. Under his leadership, a range of center initiatives are focused on improving the development of and regulatory science for more personalized therapies in cancer and neuro-degenerative diseases, as well as effectively implementing comparative effectiveness research that advances individualized care.
“If we do it right, health-care reform can have a positive impact on medical innovation and our overall ability to deliver the best, most targeted care to patients,” McClellan says.
As FDA commissioner, McClellan oversaw efforts to establish a new regulatory approach for using pharmacogenomic information in product development and the creation of electronic data systems that would enhance the analysis of collected pharmacogenomics data.
“We believe that better analysis of pharmacogenomics data can close the information gaps as to why people respond differently to the same drug,” he says. “These steps toward developing better, more comprehensive information on treatments at a lower cost are especially important to patients so that we can do a better job of telling patients exactly which treatments are best for them.”
Mark McClellan is senior fellow, director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform, and Leonard D. Schaeffer Chair in Health Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. Established in 2007, the Engelberg Center provides practical solutions to achieve high-quality, innovative, affordable health care with particular emphasis on identifying opportunities on the national, state, and local levels.
A doctor and economist by training, McClellan has a highly distinguished record in public service and academic research. He is a former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. McClellan served as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and senior director for health-care policy under President George W. Bush. He also served in the Clinton administration as deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for economic policy where he supervised economic analysis and policy development on a range of domestic policy issues.
Previously, McClellan was an associate professor of economics and associate professor of medicine with tenure at Stanford University where he directed Stanford’s Program on Health Outcomes Research; served as associate editor of the Journal of Health Economics, and was coprincipal investigator of the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal study of the health and economic status of older Americans. He has twice received the Kenneth J. Arrow Award for Outstanding Research in Health Economics.
In his capacity as a health-policy expert, McClellan is the codirector of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Leaders’ Project on the State of American Health Care; cochair of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America; and chair of the FDA’s Reagan-Udall Foundation. He is also cochair of the Quality Alliance Steering Committee, sits on the National Quality Forum’s Board of Directors, is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
McClellan holds an MD from the Harvard University–Massachusetts Institute of Technology ] Division of Health Sciences and Technology, a PhD in economics from MIT, an MPA from Harvard University, and a BA from the University of Texas at Austin. He completed his residency training in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, is board certified in internal medicine, and has been a practicing internist during his career.
UNC Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy
The institute was formed in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy as a collaborative effort with the School of Medicine, Gillings School of Global Public Health, and the School of Nursing and with support from the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Carolina Center for Genome Sciences. Pharmacogenomics is the study of how genetic variation among individuals contributes to differences in the way people respond to medicines.
Leadership in key areas of pharmacogenomic research is fostered by contiguous office and laboratory space that bolster collaboration and enable the development of comprehensive research investigations and treatment tools. IPIT also offers the services of core facilities in molecular genomics, cellular phenotyping and bioinformatics to add to the excellent core facilities already existing at UNC.
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