Title: Professor & CMC Endowed Chair in Pharmaceutical Management & Economics
Company: College of Pharmacy, University of Minnesota
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Stephen W. Schondelmeyer, PharmD, PhD, Professor and Century Mortar Club Endowed Chair in Pharmaceutical Management & Economics in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Educators for dedication, achievements, and leadership in pharmacy education.
For 50 years, Dr. Schondelmeyer has excelled as a pharmacist-educator-researcher who has taught and conducted research at the University of Kentucky (1974-1977), The Ohio State University (1977-1980), the University of Arizona (1980-1982), Purdue University (1982-1991) and the University of Minnesota (1991-2023). For 23 of his 33 years at the University of Minnesota, he served as Head of the Department of Pharmaceutical Care and Health Systems (1997-2020) and was responsible for supervising more than 30 faculty members, ranging from clinical practitioners to basic science researchers. While at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Schondelmeyer has been, and continues to serve as, Director of the PRIME Institute (1991-2023), and President of The Minnesota Policy Group (2006-2023).
As a pharmacist-educator-researcher, Dr. Schondelmeyer’s specific expertise has focused on economic, policy and legal issues related to pharmaceuticals and their appropriate use. Dr. Schondelmeyer’s work experience has encompassed activities in practice, academia, professional associations, and state and federal government. His education, experience, and background have provided him with a unique understanding of the complex and technical issues leading to dramatic changes in the pharmaceutical marketplace. He has demonstrated outstanding, meritorious achievement through teaching, research, leadership and service in the health economics and pharmaceutical research field over the past 50 years and has received more than 20 national awards for his work including the Hubert H. Humphrey Award (2012) and the Tyler Prize for Stimulation of Research (2014) both from the American Pharmacists Association.
Dr. Schondelmeyer is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts in pharmaceutical economics and public policy. Over the past five decades, he has actively worked to increase coverage and to improve the affordability of prescription drugs for society and especially for the Medicare and Medicaid populations. He served as an advisor to Congress as a Commissioner on the Prescription Drug Payment Review Commission (RxPRC) (1988-1989); he testified before Congress numerous times; and he authored several Reports to Congress on pharmaceutical expenditures and prices. His research and testimony in 2003 before a Congressional Subcommittee had an influence on the development and passage of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. He was named by the National Journal as one of the “key thinkers who are helping to shape the drug pricing debate” and was recognized as being “very well respected and very knowledgeable, particularly in the area of [drug] pricing…” Another research report by Dr. Schondelmeyer to the U.S. Congress was a catalyst, along with other influences, that led Congress to pass the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA-2022).
Dr. Schondelmeyer created, and for more than 25 years (1998-2023), continues to publish the PRIME Index in conjunction with the AARP Public Policy Institute. This AARP Rx Price Watch Report tracks and analyzes the prices of brand name, generic, and specialty drug products on an annual basis. These AARP Rx Price Watch reports increase public and policymaker awareness of the role of drug prices and of the need to make medications more accessible and affordable for individual patients. This work has enabled and encouraged generic drugs and biosimilars as a safe and effective way to make prescription drugs more affordable.
In more recent years, Dr. Schondelmeyer has developed extensive expertise in solving drug shortages and improving the resilience of the U.S. drug supply. He is Co-Director of the Resilient Drug Supply Program in the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (2019-2023) at the University of Minnesota. His work has demonstrated that prescription drugs are critical infrastructure essential for ensuring the public health and national security.
Dr. Schondelmeyer has conducted more than 140 research studies and published more than 350 research articles, reports, and abstracts. Dr. Schondelmeyer and his research is often quoted by policymakers and policy advocates, and by the professional and public media. His focus has been on telling the public and policymakers about “Who pharmacists are” and “how they can improve the distribution and use of drugs in society.”
Dr. Schondelmeyer has been one of the most cited pharmacists in public media for more than three decades. He is frequently called upon to comment on breaking national new stories related to drug prices, FDA actions, Medicare and Medicaid changes, PBMs and insurance decisions, drug shortages and adverse effects, and other pharmaceutical policy issues. His work has been featured on the front page of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, and he has been quoted in USA Today, the Washington Post, the National Journal, and other national print media and news services such as Reuters, Bloomberg, and the Associated Press. Also, he has appeared on broadcast media such as ABC Evening News, ABC 20/20, NBC News, Jim Lehrer News Hour, CNBC News, Bloomberg Press, Prime Time Live and provided interviews on radio programs such as National Public Radio, Marketplace, Minnesota Public Radio, and others.
To prepare for this outstanding and exemplary career, Dr. Schondelmeyer graduated from the University of Missouri with a Bachelor of Science in pharmacy (1974). He earned a Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Kentucky (1977), and he obtained a Master of Arts in Public Administration from The Ohio State University (1979). He concluded his higher education at The Ohio State University with a Doctor of Philosophy in pharmaceutical administration (1984) with a focus on Health Economics & Behavioral Epidemiology. In his spare time, he enjoys reviewing data, monitoring trends in his field, learning about new cultures, visiting historical sites, and traveling to other countries.
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