Harkness Project Title:  Uptake and Utilization of Statins in the United States: Evidence from Medical Expenditure Panel Survey

Mentor: Steve Soumerai, Sc.D.

Placement: Harvard Medical School/Harvard Pilgrim Health Care

Biography at time of Harkness Fellowship: Panos Kanavos, a 2001–02 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy, is a lecturer in international health policy and director of the master of science in international health policy program in the Department of Social Policy and Administration at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests include the financing of health services, pharmaceutical policy, the economics of health-related high technology (pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and medical devices), and the health problems of economies in transition. He has published widely on health care reform issues, pharmaceutical economics, and policy. Kanavos served as advisor on health care reform and pharmaceutical policy in a variety of Eastern European countries and the Philippines and is a former alternate member of the executive committee of the National Drug Organization of Greece. He has also served as temporary advisor to and has received research grants from the World Health Organization, World Bank, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, European Commission, and European Parliament.

Project: Panos Kanavos explored the predictors of statin use in the U.S. between 1996 and 1998 for both primary and secondary prevention.  He also explored how statin use during this period compared with published evidence on good clinical practice.  He used data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) to identify patients who, on the basis of published clinical evidence, would qualify to receive a statin.  He also conducted a retrospective multivariate logistic analysis on predictors of statin use, including socioeconomic and clinical factors.

Career Activity Since Fellowship

• Program Director of the Medical Technology Research Group at LSE Health, 2009
• Reader in International Health Policy, Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics, 2006
• Merck Fellow in Pharmaceutical Policy, LSE Health, 2006
• Research Fellow in Pharmaceutical Economics, LSE Health and Social Care, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2003

Current Position: Director, International Health Policy Programme (Health Economics), LSE Health, and Senior Lecturer and Head, Medical Technology Research Unit, Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics. (Updated August 2010)

E-Mail: p.g.kanavos@lse.ac.uk

Harkness-Related Publications

 Panos Kanavos, Joan Costa Font, Alistair McGuire. "Product differentiation, competition and regulation of new drugs: the case of statins in four European countries," Managerial and Decision Economics. Chichester: Jun-Aug 2007. Vol. 28, Iss. 4/5; pg. 455

Morgan SG, McMahon M, Mitton C, Roughead E, Kirk R, Kanavos P, Menon D. “Centralized Drug Review Processes in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom,” Health Affairs 2006; 25(2):337-347

Kanavos P, Gemmill M., “Senior citizens and the burden of prescription drug outlays : what lessons for the medicare prescription drug benefit?” Appl Health Econ Health Policy. 2004;3(4):217-27

Reinhardt U, Kanavos P. “Reference Pricing for Drugs: Is it Compatible With U.S. Health Care?” Health Affairs 2003; 22(3):16-28. 

Pollack M, Kanavos P, Link C. Variations in Prescribing Patterns of Atypical Antipsychotics: A Probit Analysis of the NAMCS and NHAMCS Surveys for the Period 1992 – 1999. Department of Economics, University of Delaware, May 2002.