Health Policies & Programs

Introduction
Policy Objectives
Position on Health Care Reform
Patient Health Management
Contact Information


Introduction

Merck Frosst is one of the country's leading fully-integrated pharmaceutical companies and possesses a long record of innovation. The company's scientific discoveries have led to medicines that alleviate suffering, as well as prolong and enhance the lives of Canadians and people around the world. Increasingly, these same discoveries are contributing to the search for better ways of managing the country's scarce healthcare resources and thereby helping to safeguard one of the world's most accessible and effective healthcare systems.

While Merck Frosst's main activities are the discovery, development, manufacturing and distribution of medicines, the company also recognizes the responsibility it bears as a member of the healthcare community. Clearly, the individual health of every Canadian is tied to the long-term soundness of the country's health care system. This insight has led Merck Frosst to establish a Patient Health Management group and a Health Policy Division. These structures are intended to allow the company to participate fully with other stakeholders in the healthcare system to ensure patient access to optimal therapies, while improving costs and health outcomes.

Policy Objectives

• To encourage "best practices" (i.e., the right treatment for the right patient at the right time).
• To work in partnership with key health care stakeholders.
• To shape the environment towards evidence-based policy and care, systems efficiency and stakeholder satisfaction.

Position on Health Care Reform

The Canadian health care system is approaching a point where aging populations, government budgetary pressures, and outmoded health care delivery systems could compromise our ability to provide adequate public health care. Citizens, led by the aging baby boomers, are increasingly sophisticated about opportunities available to improve their health and quality of life. Citizens expect, and demand, effective health care technologies and new and more effective pharmaceuticals. They have raised expectations and there is demand for solutions among all demographic segments. At the same time, people, particularly in rural parts of Canada, do not accept diminishing infrastructure and services within their communities. These challenges facing the health care sector must be met and satisfied by provincial governments, often in the face of severe fiscal constraints.

The health care reform processes underway in every Canadian province must address changing citizen needs, technological and pharmaceutical innovations, and the pressures of population growth. Achieving a workable balance between demand and potential solutions is the ultimate dilemma facing health care practitioners, policy developers, and budget planners.

Patient Health Management

Merck Frosst sponsors a number of studies across the country aimed at improving health care management and delivery in a wide variety of therapeutic areas. The company's funding and participation in the Improving Cardiovascular Outcomes in Nova Scotia project, (ICONS), is a good case in point. ICONS is one of the largest Canadian population-based studies ever undertaken to measure and improve existing healthcare for heart disease. Merck Frosst has invested $6 million to fund the study which is being undertaken in a joint partnership with the Government of Nova Scotia and the Division of Cardiology of the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax. The study is looking at patients hospitalized with heart disease at acute care institutions in Nova Scotia as well as high-risk patients from physician practices across the province. The five-year study, which will be completed by the end of 2001, will measure and improve all aspects of care and health outcomes for these patients, using evidence-based practices. For more information on ICONS, go to www.icons.ns.ca.

Contact Information

Customer Information Centre