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A front-page article in the Fall 2005 newsletter of Illinois’ Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) calls attention to a swiftly growing movement among civic leaders, organizations and workers that affects employee benefits packages. In the article, Syed Quadri

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

, an employee of St. Charles, IL-based smoke detector manufacturer System Sensor, praises the merits of the employer-assisted housing (EAH) program he enjoys through a cooperative effort between System Sensor and MPC.

As a System Sensor employee of more than

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

five years, Quadri recently fulfilled his retention commitment to his employer that was a condition of the $5,000 forgivable loan he received to help him buy a house for his family of six. Quadri now lives so close to his employer, he can walk to work when i

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

t’s warm. It’s a win-win situation for System Sensor, too: By offering EAH to eligible employees, System Sensor improves its recruitment package for potential hires and experiences greater retention and morale for participating employees.

System Sensor was t

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

he first employer in Illinois to offer EAH in 1999. King Harris, president and CEO of Pittway, the parent of System Sensor at the time, understood the need. “Members of a typical working family with a moderate income too often find it impossible to live close

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

to their jobs,” he said. “As a result, our highways are more crowded, families have less time together and employers lose money due to turnover of workers.” Since then, Harris has worked tirelessly to promote affordable housing for low-income families and ot

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

hers in need of affordable housing.

Today 58 employers in Illinois offer some form of EAH, according to MPC Housing Consultant Samantha DeKoven. EAH refers to a variety of ways employers assist their workers with housing. Often, a live-near-work requirement

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

gets workers closer to their workplace, reducing stressful commutes. In some cases, the employer’s assistance leverages state or local dollars, boosting the employee’s home purchasing power.

The EAH movement is so strong in Illinois – a state largely recogni

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

zed as the national leader in EAH programs – that 26 employers jumped on the EAH bandwagon in 2005. This has translated to more than $1.3 million in employer dollars that were provided to employees in 2005 as down payment assistance toward buying or renting a

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

home near their employer. DeKoven, for one, is not surprised by the spike in participating employers statewide in the past year. “EAH programs help employers combat turnover challenges as well as absenteeism and tardiness,” she says.

Besides helping to curb

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

turnover and absenteeism, EAH programs reap other positive rewards for participating employers. In Illinois, the state’s Affordable Housing Tax Credit reduces an employer’s net cost of implementing EAH programs significantly: 50 percent of the employer’s inv

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

estment comes back through the tax credit. In addition, investment in the program is federally tax deductible.

As EAH programs are used by more employers, and as those employers report increased productivity, the inherent benefits for both the public and pri

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

vate sectors have garnered the government’s attention. Kathy Ryg, 59th District representative for the state of Illinois, was excited to report that on June 28, 2006, Governor Rod Blagojevich signed into law the Business Location Efficiency Incentive Act. Pio

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

neered by Ryg as the “Location Matters” program, the legislation provides incentives for businesses to assist their employees with both housing and transportation options. For instance, employees who stay at their company for five years can qualify for a home

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

down payment of up to $15,000.

DeKoven is quick to point out that MPC didn’t invent EAH – in fact, the group looked to similar programs that existed in other states when it began researching employee barriers to home ownership in Illinois. One resource that

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

emerged was California’s Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG). The group offers first-time home buyer training for its 200 member businesses. There is also a bill in the California Senate that would provide state funds to assist with employees’ home purcha

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

ses.

Other states are enacting programmatic approaches to EAH that derive financial support from employers and municipalities rather than the state. In Maryland, a “Live Near Your Work” program serves as a good recruitment tool for the city of Baltimore’s em

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

ployees. And on the federal level, a bill that’s in both the House of Representatives and the Senate shows promise: the Housing America’s Workforce Act.

With EAH assistance at the federal level pending and state and local involvement growing but intermittent

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

, what can an employer do to find out more about EAH programs? DeKoven says that MPC, while located in Illinois, is now available to offer technical assistance to employers across the country. That’s good news for organizations looking to decrease turnover an

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

d make their benefits packages more enticing for job applicants. “EAH is appealing to progressive, enlightened business owners who recognize that investing in housing solutions for their workers makes good business sense and can save them money,” DeKoven says

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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