Institute News

Where The Action Is

It's no secret: small and mid-size businesses are the source of much dynamism in the American economy, and capital is the fuel that keeps the wheels churning. To find out more about how owners and managers in the vital SMB sector gain access to capital, the Institute partnered with the National Center for the Middle Market on a unique survey. Sampling more than 600 firms, the survey confirmed that businesses far and away preferred to self-finance where possible, even in the current low-interest-rate environment. Debt remains the second choice – and everything else is a distant third. Encouragingly, the majority of these firms said they plan to expand in the near future and don't view the cost of capital as a deterrent.

To read the entire report, "Access to Capital: How Small and Mid-Size Businesses Are Funding Their Futures," check the Institute website.

Part of the Solution?

For more than a decade, the Institute's Faster-Cures group has worked to advance biomedical innovation and to ensure that better treatment is not only developed, but available in timely fashion to those who need it. In June, FasterCures convened 100 representatives from leading sources of R&D finance and patient foundations, along with industry executives and health care researchers, to work on solutions to the problems of bringing patient perspectives into coverage and reimbursement decision-making. Part of a growing effort to expand opportunities for hands-on connection to discovery, development and delivery of new therapies, the event was highlighted by a webinar hosted by FasterCures and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute. The goal: education on building and leveraging effective patient registries, and the release of a video history on patients' engagement in medical research.

We Did It Again!

With some 700 speakers, 170 events and 3,500 attendees, this year's Milken Institute Global Conference was bigger and better than ever, celebrating the power of ideas to drive change. In addition to exploring solutions to pressing challenges in everything from financial regulation to health care R&D to education reform, the 2015 conference focused on how to bring women into the global mainstream. Most of the panels are available for streaming on the Milken Institute website.

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