In 2025, we launched the Johnson & Johnson Center for U.S. Healthcare Policy Research (the Center), publishing more than 40 studies, briefs and insights that advanced innovation, value and access, helping shape data-driven policy discussions across the healthcare landscape.
How has research highlighted that partnerships and investment are essential for a strong healthcare innovation ecosystem?
New research demonstrated that the government and the private sector make a strong partnership when it comes to R&D. Innovation thrives when public‑sector investments (in early science, grants and regulatory support) join with private‑sector capabilities (clinical development, manufacturing scale and market launch). This combined ecosystem is critical for the development of new therapies that address the unmet needs of patients.
In 2026, policymakers can support medical innovation by further strengthening the existing intellectual property (IP) framework that supports the development of innovative medicines and generic entry, standing against initiatives that erode patent protection and ensuring that U.S. trading partners provide IP systems that appropriately protect U.S. innovation.
What does it take to value pharmaceuticals in the U.S.?
Research shows that valuing pharmaceuticals in the U.S. system is nuanced and must go beyond assigning a simple threshold to determine what is good value for money or adopting one‑size‑fits‑all models. Many patients may not receive optimal treatment because payers base coverage decisions on population averages of treatment benefit, harm and cost, ignoring heterogeneity in patient responses and individual needs.
Respect for individual patient needs must remain central when evaluating medical innovation. Insurance benefit design and coverage decisions should align with value and be tailored to fit the patient’s individual needs. Importantly, for patients with chronic diseases, insurance should support ongoing provider engagement and uninterrupted access to treatments that they and their doctors determine best meet their needs.
How has the Center’s research supported efforts to expand access?
Innovation and value are only meaningful if patients can access therapies. The rise of high-cost plans in the U.S. has increased patients’ financial burden through higher co-pays, coinsurance and deductibles, on top of already high premiums. The Center’s 2025 research highlighted how the federal 340B Drug Pricing Program has grown rapidly, without transparent benefits reaching patients. Studying child sites selection and hospital consolidation has illuminated how the 340B program may incentivize growth without improving access for the most vulnerable patients. Increasing transparency and accountability in 340B will support improved access to more affordable outpatient medicines for low-income and vulnerable patients.
It was encouraging to see Congress seeking high-quality data to evaluate 340B. The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) held a thoughtful hearing on the need for 340B reform, and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a data-driven report on 340B. At the HELP committee hearing, Aditi Sen, Ph.D., Chief of the CBO’s Health Policy Studies Unit, noted that “…in our assessment, the body of work provides credible evidence that 340B contributes to higher drug spending.”
In 2026, we will continue to inform the policy debate and advance solutions to break down affordability barriers and expand access to high-value therapies. Policymakers should strengthen 340B so that low-income and vulnerable patients directly benefit, by addressing duplicate discounts, limiting diversion and opposing policies that entrench program misuse.
How to take the research one step further
Engaging stakeholders through rigorous, patient-centered research is essential for informed policymaking. Center researchers presented and discussed research at meetings and conferences this year, including the National Academy of Medicine, AMCP Annual Meeting, AMCP Nexus, ISPOR International, ASCO, BIO, Academy Health, SMDM, DIA, EiRA Initiative, V-BID Summit and Duke Margolis Policy Summit.
There is much ahead in the world of policy and research, and still much work to do. The Center is committed to generating research that informs policies aimed at advancing medical innovation and expanding access to treatments that meet patients’ unmet needs—both now and in the future.
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