The '90s also marked publication of one of the first papers to analyze drug formularies, coauthored with Grabowski's former student, C. Daniel Mullins, along with Grabowski's first article profiling the nascent biotechnology industry. More recent collaborations include an oft-cited 2008 study on the need for data exclusivity for developers of large-molecule biologics.

Two additional studies are particularly notable for the role they played in Congressional legislation. Grabowski's 2006 Health Affairs paper, coauthored with David Ridley and Jeff Moe, developed the concept of priority review vouchers to incentivize the introduction of new drugs for neglected diseases in poor countries. The ideas in this article were enacted into law through an Amendment to the Act Renewing Drug User fees, sponsored by Senators Brownback, Brown, and Lieberman. This past year, Congress created an abbreviated regulatory pathway for the approval of biosimilars as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This law also incorporated a data exclusivity period for new biological entities to maintain the incentive for innovation that was consistent with Grabowski's analysis.

Finally, among the 26 peer-reviewed journal articles published by Grabowski and collaborators between 2000 and 2009, another one deserves particular mention. Here is a quiz question: Which article is the most cited article ever published in the main line Journal of Health Economics? Answer: "The Price of Innovation: New Estimates of Drug Development Costs," Grabowski's work in collaboration with Joseph DiMasi of the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. This article has been cited 726 times. – By Ernst R. Berndt, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Alfred P. Sloan, School of Management, and the National Bureau of Economic Research