Get To Know NPC’s New Director Of Research, Michael Ciarametaro

Michael Ciarametaro is the latest addition to the National Pharmaceutical Council (NPC) team, joining as our new director of research. In this position, Mr. Ciarametaro plays a key role in developing and delivering NPC’s portfolio of health policy and health outcomes projects. Prior to NPC, he was a senior research manager at Evidera.

NPC sat down with Mr. Ciarametaro to get to know him a little better:

For the record, how do you pronounce your last name?

“Shim-ma-taro”

What sparked your interest in health policy research? Is this what you imaged your career would be as a child?

As a child I thought that I would grow up to be a meteorologist. I was always fascinated by the complexity and power of nature. Not to mention the impact that weather has on people’s lives. This fueled my initial interest in the sciences. When I started my career as a consultant, I worked on several health care projects. These projects opened my eyes to health care, which shares the same complexity and impact on people’s lives as weather, and led me down my career path.

Tell us about your previous experience.

I have 14 years of health care industry experience with an even split between payers and the support for pharmaceutical industry. My first health care job was at Noblis where I consulted for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. I played a key role in standing up Medicare Part D. After Noblis, I worked for WellPoint NextRx. There, I performed economic analysis in support of pharmacy and therapeutics, also known as P&T. During this time, I had the opportunity to learn about payer coverage rationale for numerous disease states. Before I joined NPC, I spent the last seven years at Evidera (formerly United BioSource Corp) in the market access group. My primary focus was looking at the trade-offs between clinical value, price and market access. The nature of this work varied depending on where the product was in the lifecycle. For products in the later stages of development, I would conduct price studies; in contrast, I would examine market access and price implications of various endpoints/profiles for products in the early development stages.

What challenges or opportunities are you looking forward to in your new position?

I am looking forward to exploring how payer management of heterogeneity, or individual treatment effects, impacts outcomes and the associated policy implications.

When you’re not tackling health policy research issues at NPC, what do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

I have two young children who take up the majority of my time, but I also spend time both growing grapes and making wine.