Worried about the rising cost of prescription drugs? You’re not alone. Spending on prescription drugs continues to be a major health care concern, even more so with the country’s aging population and the expanding number of costly specialty drugs.

E. Paul Larrat, associate dean of the College of Pharmacy, will address these concerns and the larger health care issues in the nation’s capital as a Congressional Fellow.

Larrat was one of 30 chosen by the American Academy for the Advancement of Science for the fellow program. He specializes in pharmacy benefit management with private companies and government agencies and contributes solutions in health policy issues at the state level. For example, since 2002 he has headed collaboration between the College of Pharmacy and the Rhode Island Department of Corrections that resulted in $12 million in savings for taxpayers due to reductions in the cost of prescription drugs.

Larrat left for Washington in September and will spend the next year there. After three weeks of training, he will be assigned to a specific committee/legislators’ office.

He isn’t the only URI faculty member lending expertise in the nation’s capital. President Obama appointed Kate Moran, an ocean engineering professor and associate dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography, to a two-year term as senior policy analyst in 2009. Moran analyzes and works on issues related to the Arctic and climate change.