Olivier J. Wouters, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at Brown University’s School of Public Health (Department of Health Services, Policy, and Practice) and a visiting faculty member at Harvard Medical School (Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics). He was previously an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy at the London School of Economics.
His research focuses on pharmaceutical economics and policy, particularly drug pricing and access to medicines in high- and middle-income countries. His work has been published in leading journals, including Health Affairs, JAMA, The Lancet, and The New England Journal of Medicine. In 2025, he received AcademyHealth's Publication-of-the-Year Award for his research on Medicare drug price negotiations. He is a commissioner on the forthcoming Lancet Commission on Accelerating Progress on Essential Medicines.
Dr. Wouters holds a Ph.D. in Health Policy and an M.Sc. in Health Economics, both from the London School of Economics.
His current work is supported by Arnold Ventures, the Commonwealth Fund, and the National Institute on Aging.
| Wouters, Olivier J., Sullivan, Sean D., Cousin, Emma M., Gabriel, Nico, Papanicolas, Irene, Hernandez, Inmaculada. "Drug Prices Negotiated by Medicare vs US Net Prices and Prices in Other Countries." JAMA, vol. 333, no. 1, 2025, pp. 85. |
| Cherla, Avi, Woloshin, Steven, Wagner, Anita K., Wouters, Olivier J., Davis, Courtney, Mossialos, Elias, Naci, Huseyin. "New Cancer Drug Approvals: Less Than Half Of Important Clinical Trial Uncertainties Reported By The FDA To Clinicians, 2019–22." Health Affairs, vol. 44, no. 7, 2025, pp. 830-838. |
| Fuse Brown, Erin C., Wouters, Olivier J., Mehrotra, Ateev. "Partnerships between Pharmaceutical and Telehealth Companies — Increasing Access or Driving Inappropriate Prescribing?." New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 392, no. 12, 2025, pp. 1148-1151. |
| Wouters, Olivier J., Denolle, Cyprien, Wei, Jinru, Papanicolas, Irene. "Prices and Affordability of Essential Medicines in 72 Low-, Middle-, and High-Income Markets." JAMA Health Forum, vol. 6, no. 8, 2025, pp. e252043. |
| Chan, Mei Xuan Jessalyn, Wouters, Olivier J., Chan, Hui Yun, Terblanche, Petro, Premsri, Nakorn, Kim, Jerome H., Lim, John C.W., Tan-Koi, Wei Chuen, Jit, Mark. "Regional cooperation on pandemic preparedness and vaccine equity from an economic, regulatory and legal perspective." Vaccine, vol. 53, 2025, pp. 127107. |
| Cherla, Avi, Wagner, Anita K., Wouters, Olivier J., Woloshin, Steven, Davis, Courtney, Mossialos, Elias, Naci, Huseyin. "Reporting of Clinical Trial Uncertainties With New Cancer Drugs in Journal Publications and Clinical Guidelines." JAMA, 2025. |
| Vogel, Matthew, Feldman, William B., Cowan, Zander, Rome, Benjamin N., Chandra, Amitabh, Kesselheim, Aaron S., Wouters, Olivier J. "Revenue Differences Between Top-Selling Small-Molecule Drugs and Biologics in Medicare." JAMA Health Forum, vol. 6, no. 10, 2025, pp. e254720. |
| Vokinger, Kerstin N., Li, Guanqiao, Wouters, Olivier J. "The Rise of Drug Innovation in China — Implications for Patient Access in the United States and Globally." New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 393, no. 9, 2025, pp. 839-841. |
| Wouters, Olivier J., Naci, Huseyin, Papanicolas, Irene. "Availability and Coverage of New Drugs in 6 High-Income Countries With Health Technology Assessment Bodies." JAMA Internal Medicine, vol. 184, no. 3, 2024, pp. 328. |
| Wouters, Olivier J., Vogel, Matthew, Feldman, William B., Beall, Reed F., Kesselheim, Aaron S., Tu, S. Sean. "Differential Legal Protections for Biologics vs Small-Molecule Drugs in the US." JAMA, vol. 332, no. 24, 2024, pp. 2101. |
| Wouters, Olivier J., Naci, Huseyin, Papanicolas, Irene. "Health Technology Assessment in the US—A Word of Caution—Reply." JAMA Internal Medicine, vol. 184, no. 7, 2024, pp. 851. |
| Sullivan, Sean D., Wouters, Olivier J., Cousin, Emma M., Kirihennedige, Ayuri S., Hernandez, Inmaculada. "Integrating Price Benchmarks and Comparative Clinical Effectiveness to Inform the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program." Value in Health, vol. 27, no. 10, 2024, pp. 1348-1357. |
| Wouters, Olivier J. "Lobbying in US Health Care—Lessons From the Field of Oncology." Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, vol. 22, no. 4, 2024, pp. 275-276. |
| Wouters, Olivier J., Kuha, Jouni. "Low- And Middle-Income Countries Experienced Delays Accessing New Essential Medicines, 1982–2024." Health Affairs, vol. 43, no. 10, 2024, pp. 1410-1419. |
| Hernandez, Inmaculada, Cousin, Emma M., Wouters, Olivier J., Gabriel, Nico, Cameron, Teresa, Sullivan, Sean D. "Medicare drug price negotiation: The complexities of selecting therapeutic alternatives for estimating comparative effectiveness." Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy, vol. 30, no. 3, 2024, pp. 218-225. |
| Hernandez, Inmaculada, Cousin, Emma M., Wouters, Olivier J., Gabriel, Nico, Cameron, Teresa, Sullivan, Sean D. "Price benchmarks of drugs selected for Medicare price negotiation and their therapeutic alternatives." Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy, vol. 30, no. 8, 2024, pp. 762-772. |
| Wouters, Olivier J., Kesselheim, Aaron S. "Quantifying Research and Development Expenditures in the Drug Industry." JAMA Network Open, vol. 7, no. 6, 2024, pp. e2415407. |
| Wouters, Olivier J., Kesselheim, Aaron S., Kuha, Jouni, Luyten, Jeroen. "Sales Revenues for New Therapeutic Agents Approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration From 1995 to 2014." Value in Health, vol. 27, no. 10, 2024, pp. 1373-1381. |
| van Kessel, Robin, Forman, Rebecca, Milstein, Ricarda, Mastylak, Alicja, Czabanowska, Katarzyna, Czypionka, Thomas, Durand-Zaleski, Isabelle, Hirche, Anja, Krysinska-Pisarek, Magdalena, Maynou, Laia, Roberts, Bjelle, Torbica, Aleksandra, Vrangbæk, Karsten, Wang, Yuxi, Wouters, Olivier J., Mossialos, Elias. "Divergent COVID-19 vaccine policies: Policy mapping of ten European countries." Vaccine, vol. 41, no. 17, 2023, pp. 2804-2810. |
| Angelis, Aris, Polyakov, Roman, Wouters, Olivier J, Torreele, Els, McKee, Martin. "High drug prices are not justified by industry’s spending on research and development." BMJ, 2023, pp. e071710. |
| Vokinger, Kerstin N., Perényi, Gellért, Wouters, Olivier J. "Investments in Research and Development for Supplemental Drug Indications—Implications for Drug Price Negotiations." JAMA Health Forum, vol. 4, no. 9, 2023, pp. e232798. |
| Feldman, William B., Tu, S. Sean, Alhiary, Rasha, Kesselheim, Aaron S., Wouters, Olivier J. "Manufacturer Revenue on Inhalers After Expiration of Primary Patents, 2000-2021." JAMA, vol. 329, no. 1, 2023, pp. 87. |
| Wouters, Olivier J., Forman, Rebecca, Anderson, Michael, Mossialos, Elias, McKee, Martin. "The launch of the EU Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA): Improving global pandemic preparedness?." Health Policy, vol. 133, 2023, pp. 104844. |
| Anderson M, Wouters OJ, Mossialos E. "Transferable exclusivity extensions to stimulate antibiotic research and development: what is at stake?." The Lancet. Microbe, vol. 4, no. 3, 2023, pp. e127-e128. |
| Anderson, Michael, Wouters, Olivier J, Mossialos, Elias. "Transferable exclusivity extensions to stimulate antibiotic research and development: what is at stake?." The Lancet Microbe, vol. 4, no. 3, 2023, pp. e127-e128. |
| Wouters, Olivier J., Berenbrok, Lucas A., He, Meiqi, Li, Yihan, Hernandez, Inmaculada. "Association of Research and Development Investments With Treatment Costs for New Drugs Approved From 2009 to 2018." JAMA Network Open, vol. 5, no. 9, 2022, pp. e2218623. |
| Wouters, Olivier J., McKee, Martin, Luyten, Jeroen. "Errors in Source Data for Study of Drug Development Costs." JAMA, vol. 328, no. 11, 2022, pp. 1110. |
| Wouters OJ, Feldman WB, Tu SS. "Product Hopping in the Drug Industry - Lessons from Albuterol." New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 387, no. 13, 2022, pp. 1153-1156. |
| Wouters, Olivier J., Feldman, William B., Tu, S. Sean. "Product Hopping in the Drug Industry — Lessons from Albuterol." New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 387, no. 13, 2022, pp. 1153-1156. |
| McKee, Martin, Wouters, Olivier J. "The Challenges of Regulating Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Comment on "Clinical Decision Support and New Regulatory Frameworks for Medical Devices: Are We Ready for It? - A Viewpoint Paper." International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 2022. |
| Wouters, Olivier J, Shadlen, Kenneth C, Salcher-Konrad, Maximilian, Pollard, Andrew J, Larson, Heidi J, Teerawattananon, Yot, Jit, Mark. "Challenges in ensuring global access to COVID-19 vaccines: production, affordability, allocation, and deployment." The Lancet, vol. 397, no. 10278, 2021, pp. 1023-1034. |
| Wouters OJ, Shadlen KC, Salcher-Konrad M, Pollard AJ, Larson HJ, Teerawattananon Y, Jit M. "Challenges in ensuring global access to COVID-19 vaccines: production, affordability, allocation, and deployment." The Lancet, vol. 397, no. 10278, 2021, pp. 1023-1034. |
| Wenham, Clare, Wouters, Olivier, Jones, Catherine, Juma, Pamela A., Mijumbi-Deve, Rhona M., Sobngwi-Tambekou, Joëlle L., Parkhurst, Justin. "Measuring health science research and development in Africa: mapping the available data." Health Research Policy and Systems, vol. 19, no. 1, 2021. |
| Jit, Mark, Ananthakrishnan, Aparna, McKee, Martin, Wouters, Olivier J., Beutels, Philippe, Teerawattananon, Yot. "Multi-country collaboration in responding to global infectious disease threats: lessons for Europe from the COVID-19 pandemic." The Lancet Regional Health - Europe, vol. 9, 2021, pp. 100221. |
| Luyten J, McKee M, Wouters OJ. "[How much does research and development of a drug cost? A call for more transparency]." Nederlands tijdschrift voor geneeskunde, vol. 164, 2020. |
| Shi, Wunan, Wouters, Olivier J., Liu, Gordon, Mossialos, Elias, Yang, Xiuyun. "Association between provincial income levels and drug prices in China over the period 2010–2017." Social Science & Medicine, vol. 263, 2020, pp. 113247. |
| Wouters, Olivier J., Hervey, Tamara, McKee, Martin. "Brexit and the European Medicines Agency—What Next for the Agency and UK Drug Regulators?." JAMA Health Forum, vol. 1, no. 2, 2020, pp. e200135. |
| Wouters, Olivier J., McKee, Martin, Luyten, Jeroen. "Estimated Research and Development Investment Needed to Bring a New Medicine to Market, 2009-2018." JAMA, vol. 323, no. 9, 2020, pp. 844. |
| Wouters, Olivier J. "Lobbying Expenditures and Campaign Contributions by the Pharmaceutical and Health Product Industry in the United States, 1999-2018." JAMA Internal Medicine, vol. 180, no. 5, 2020, pp. 688. |
| Wouters, Olivier J., McKee, Martin, Luyten, Jeroen. "Research and Development Costs of New Drugs—Reply." JAMA, vol. 324, no. 5, 2020, pp. 518. |
| van Schalkwyk, May C I, Jarman, Holly, Hervey, Tamara, Wouters, Olivier J, Barlow, Pepita, McKee, Martin. "Risks to health and the NHS in the post-Brexit era." BMJ, 2020, pp. m2307. |
| Wouters, Olivier J., Sandberg, Dale M., Pillay, Anban, Kanavos, Panos G. "The impact of pharmaceutical tendering on prices and market concentration in South Africa over a 14-year period." Social Science & Medicine, vol. 220, 2019, pp. 362-370. |
| Wouters, Olivier J., Kanavos, Panos G. "A comparison of generic drug prices in seven European countries: a methodological analysis." BMC Health Services Research, vol. 17, no. 1, 2017. |
| WOUTERS, OLIVIER J., KANAVOS, PANOS G., McKEE, MARTIN. "Comparing Generic Drug Markets in Europe and the United States: Prices, Volumes, and Spending." The Milbank Quarterly, vol. 95, no. 3, 2017, pp. 554-601. |
| NACI, HUSEYIN, WOUTERS, OLIVIER J., GUPTA, RADHIKA, IOANNIDIS, JOHN P.A. "Timing and Characteristics of Cumulative Evidence Available on Novel Therapeutic Agents Receiving Food and Drug Administration Accelerated Approval." The Milbank Quarterly, vol. 95, no. 2, 2017, pp. 261-290. |
| Wouters, Olivier J., Cylus, Jonathan, Yang, Wei, Thomson, Sarah, McKee, Martin. "Medical savings accounts: assessing their impact on efficiency, equity and financial protection in health care." Health Economics, Policy and Law, vol. 11, no. 3, 2016, pp. 321-335. |
| Wouters OJ, Cylus J, Yang W, Thomson S, McKee M. "Medical savings accounts: assessing their impact on efficiency, equity and financial protection in health care." Health Economics, Policy and Law, vol. 11, no. 3, 2016, pp. 321-35. |
| Panteli D, Arickx F, Cleemput I, Dedet G, Eckhardt H, Fogarty E, Gerkens S, Henschke C, Hislop J, Jommi C, Kaitelidou D, Kawalec P, Keskimaki I, Kroneman M, Lopez Bastida J, Pita Barros P, Ramsberg J, Schneider P, Spillane S, Vogler S, Vuorenkoski L, Wallach Kildemoes H, Wouters O, Busse R. "Pharmaceutical regulation in 15 European countries review." Health systems in transition, vol. 18, no. 5, 2016, pp. 1-122. |
| Chambers, James D., Naci, Huseyin, Wouters, Olivier J., Pyo, Junhee, Gunjal, Shalak, Kennedy, Ian R., Hoey, Mark G., Winn, Aaron, Neumann, Peter J. "An Assessment of the Methodological Quality of Published Network Meta-Analyses: A Systematic Review." PLOS ONE, vol. 10, no. 4, 2015, pp. e0121715. |
| Chambers, James D., Naci, Huseyin, Wouters, Olivier J., Pyo, Junhee, Gunjal, Shalak, Kennedy, Ian R., Hoey, Mark G., Winn, Aaron, Neumann, Peter J. "Correction: An Assessment of the Methodological Quality of Published Network Meta-Analyses: A Systematic Review." PLOS ONE, vol. 10, no. 7, 2015, pp. e0131953. |
| Wouters, Olivier J., O'Donoghue, Donal J., Ritchie, James, Kanavos, Panos G., Narva, Andrew S. "Early chronic kidney disease: diagnosis, management and models of care." Nature Reviews Nephrology, vol. 11, no. 8, 2015, pp. 491-502. |
| Wouters, Olivier J, Naci, Huseyin, Samani, Nilesh J. "QALYs in cost-effectiveness analysis: an overview for cardiologists." Heart, vol. 101, no. 23, 2015, pp. 1868-1873. |
| Naci, Huseyin, Lehman, Richard, Wouters, Olivier J, Goldacre, Ben, Yudkin, John S. "Rethinking the appraisal and approval of drugs for type 2 diabetes:." BMJ, 2015, pp. h5260. |
| Wouters, Olivier J, Kanavos, Panos G. "Transitioning to a national health system in Cyprus: a stakeholder analysis of pharmaceutical policy reform." Bulletin of the World Health Organization, vol. 93, no. 9, 2015, pp. 606-613. |
| Wouters OJ, Kanavos PG. "Transitioning to a national health system in Cyprus: a stakeholder analysis of pharmaceutical policy reform." Bulletin of the World Health Organization, vol. 93, no. 9, 2015, pp. 606-13. |
| Wouters, Olivier J., Downs, Philip W., Zoerhoff, Kathryn L., Crowley, Kathryn R., Frawley, Hannah, Einberg, Jennifer, Chu, Brian K., Brady, Molly A., Oscar, Roland, Jeudi, Mireille, Desormeaux, Anne-Marie, Coly, Karleen, Direny, Abdel N., Thakur, Garib D., Pokharel, Raj K., Sharma, Shekhar, Raman, Dharmpal P., Sesay, Santigie, Sonnie, Mustapha, Kilembe, Bernard, Mwingira, Upendo, Yajima, Aya. "Resource Planning for Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) Control Programs: Feasibility Study of the Tool for Integrated Planning and Costing (TIPAC)." PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, vol. 8, no. 2, 2014, pp. e2619. |
| Year | Degree | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | PhD | London School of Economics and Political Science |
| 2012 | MSc | London School of Economics and Political Science |
| 2011 | BSc | Georgetown University |
Publication-of-the-Year Award, AcademyHealth (2025)
Excellence in Education Award for "outstanding teaching contribution and educational leadership," London School of Economics (2021)
Brian Abel-Smith Prize for Best Overall Performance, MSc Health Economics, London School of Economics (2012)
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| Fuse Brown, Erin | Director of the Health Policy and Law Lab, Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice |
| Mehrotra, Ateev | Walter H. Annenberg Professorship, Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice, Chair of Health Services, Policy and Practice |
| Papanicolas, Irene | Provost's Professor of Health Services, Policy, and Practice, Director of the Center for Health System Sustainability |
