Assessing the U.S. Medical Innovation System
Organized by Stacie B. Dusetzina and Bhaven N. Sampat
Supported by the National Institute on Aging
March 13, 2026
NBER, 1050 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA
Format: 15 minutes for presentation of each paper and 10 minutes for Q & A
Friday, March 13
8:30am
Breakfast
9:00am

Panel 1 - Public Funding Panel

Does Peer Review Penalize Scientific Risk Taking? Evidence from NIH Grant Renewals

Pierre Azoulay, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER
Wesley H. Greenblatt, Boston Children's Hospital

Booms, Busts, and the PhD Pipeline: The Career Impacts of Biomedical Science Funding Volatility

Max Mayca, University at Albany, SUNY
Gerald R. Marschke, State University of New York at Albany and NBER

Scientists and Institutions in Life-Science Discovery

Amitabh Chandra, Harvard University and NBER
Connie Xu, Harvard University
10:15am
Break
10:30am

Panel 2 - Clinical Trials and Regulatory Policy

Clinical and Regulatory Tradeoffs for Innovation: Lessons from the FDA’s Breakthrough Devices Program

Kushal T. Kadakia, Harvard University
Sanket S. Dhruva, University of California, San Francisco
Joseph S. Ross, Yale University
Vinay K. Rathi, Ohio State University

Conditional and Lenient Drug Approvals

Chenxi Xu, Duke University
Giuseppe Lopomo, Duke University
David B. Ridley, Duke University
Peng Sun, Duke University

Beyond the Label: Regulatory Arbitrage in Pharmaceutical Market Entry

Jennifer L. Kao, University of California, Los Angeles
Charu N. Gupta, Harvard University
11:45am
Lunch
12:45pm

Panel 3 - Patents, Taxes, and Incentives for Pharmaceutical Innovation

Tax Windfall or White Elephant? The Intensive-Margin Innovation Response of U.S. Pharmaceutical Firms to the 2017 Corporate Tax Reform

Antonio J. Trujillo, Johns Hopkins University
Yongzheng Liang, Johns Hopkins University
Manuel Hermosilla, Johns Hopkins University
Jeromie Ballreich, Johns Hopkins University

Missing Markets for Innovation: Evidence from New Uses for Existing Drugs

Eric Budish, University of Chicago and NBER
Maya M. Durvasula, Stanford University
Benjamin N. Roin, Independent Researcher
Heidi L. Williams, Dartmouth College and NBER

Serial Patent Litigation: An Emerging Strategy to Delay Entry of Generic Competition

Timothy Bonis, Dartmouth College
Aaron Kesselheim, Harvard Medical School
S. Sean Tu, University of Alabama
2:00pm
Break
2:15pm

 Panel 4 - Pricing, Insurance, and Value of Innovation

Quantifying the net health effects of new drugs adopted by Medicare, 2015-2024

Huseyin Naci, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Jinru Wei, Brown University
Astrid Van Wilder, Brown University
James Lomas, University of York
Daniel A. Ollendorf, Institute for Clinical and Economic Review
Irene Papanicolas, Brown University

Does Brand-to-Brand Competition Reduce Prices of Prescription Drugs?

Drishti Baid, University of Southern California

Do We Pay for Innovation? The Rising Returns to Pharmacological Novelty in the U.S. Pharmaceutical Market

Boshen Jiao, University of Southern California
Ian S. Haworth, University of Southern California
Darius N. Lakdawalla, University of Southern California and NBER