Carolyn H. Asbury, ScMPH, PhD’s career is in health philanthropy and medical drug policy research. She recently retired from her position as Senior Consultant at the Dana Foundation, overseeing clinical neuroscience research grants and advising on the monthly publication, Cerebrum. Prior to joining Dana, she first was a Senior Program Officer at The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and then was Director of the Health and Human Services program at the Pew Charitable Trusts. Her medical drug policy research, apart from her foundation work, is on “orphan” drugs and biologics for treating rare diseases, substance addiction, conditions affecting children, childbearing-age women, people in developing nations, and for therapeutic and preventive vaccines.
Trained at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pennsylvania, her health philanthropy and research efforts combine perspectives from public health, health systems management, and finance. Her orphan products research helped to inform the market incentives and regulatory provisions of the 1983 Orphan Drug Act, as reflected in journal articles and her book, Orphan Drugs: Medical vs Market Value, reviewed in Science. She was a member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly IOM) Committee on Accelerating Progress on Rare Disease Research and Product Development. Board service: U.S. Pharmacopeia, National Organization for Rare Disorders, Treatment Research Institute, and College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Dr. Asbury has advised pharmaceutical corporations on grant programs to increase academic training in pharmaceutical policy research, international drug donation efforts, and on building capacity for increased access to drug and vaccine delivery services.