Harvard Pilgrim wins $150m FDA contract

A joint effort of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Harvard Medical School has been called on to spearhead a program that seeks to ensure the safety of the most widely used medicines.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has awarded a contract for up to $150 million to Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, a collaboration of Harvard Pilgrim and Harvard Medical School. The institute will work with about 50 organizations, including hospitals and health insurance companies such as Aetna, to obtain information used in the analysis.

Known as Sentinel System, the program builds on a five-year pilot project overseen by the institute.

The FDA’s Janet Woodcock predicted the Sentinel System would "play an integral role in expanding the resources we have to track and understand important information about the drugs used by patients throughout the United States."