Abby Alpert

Abby Alpert is an Assistant Professor of Health Care Management at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests are in health economics and public finance. Her recent work has focused on pharmaceuticals and, specifically, the consequences of Medicare and Medicaid policies for prescription drugs.  In this area of research, she has studied Medicaid reimbursement policies, Medicaid managed care, Medicare Part D, directtoconsumer advertising, opioid abuse, and drug shortages.  Her research also examines the impacts of Medicare and Medicaid payment policies for other health care services.

Prior to joining Wharton, she was an Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Policy at The Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California in Irvine and she was an Associate Economist at the RAND Corporation. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland and B.S. in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Chicago.

Past Courses

HCMG215 MGMT&ECONOFPHARMA,BIOTEC

This course provides an overview of the management, economic and policy issues facing the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries. The course perspective is global, but with emphasis on the U.S. as the largest and and most profitable market. Critical issues we will examine include: R&D intensive cost structure and rapid technological change; biotechnology and genomics startups and alliances with the pharma industry; a complex global marketplace in which prices are regulated in most countries and customers include governments and insurers, as well as physicians, pharmacists and consumers; intense and evolving M&A, including mergers, joint ventures, and complex alliances; government regulation of every business function, including R&D, pricing and promotion; and global products and multinational firms. We use Wharton and industry experts from various disciplines to address these issues.

HCMG863 MGMT&ECONOFPHARM&MEDTECH

This course provides an overview of the management, economic and policy issues facing the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. The course perspective is global, but with emphasis on the U.S. as the largest and most profitable market. Critical issues we will examine include: R&D intensive cost structure with regulation and rapid technological change; strategic challenges of biotechnology startups; a complex global marketplace in which prices are regulated in most countries and customers include governments and insurers, as well as physicians, and consumers; intense and evolving M&A, joint ventures, and complex alliances; thriving generics industry in the US and globally. We use Wharton and industry experts from various disciplines to address these issues.

Knowledge @ Wharton

Cause and Effect: Do Prescription Drug Ads Really Work?, Knowledge @ Wharton 01/04/2017