Issue 34, January 12, 2023
America faces daunting and complex healthcare challenges that include and go beyond the current pandemic. In myriad ways, innovative healthcare companies are developing solutions to improve access to care, battle disease, strengthen population health, and meet the needs of underserved communities. This newsletter will offer examples of Healthcare Leadership Council members answering the call. |
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HLC Webinar
What's New in Cancer Innovation?
Although it's been just over half a century since President Nixon declared a War on Cancer, 600,000 Americans still lose their lives each year to the disease. The tide is turning, though, thanks to new innovations in cancer detection and treatment. An expert panel will discuss how to ensure accessibility to these breakthroughs and how changes in the legislative and regulatory environment can turbocharge continued lifesaving innovations.
Speakers from: City of Hope Guardant Health
Novartis Wednesday, January 18, 2023 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. ET
Email questions to Kelly Fernandez at kfernandez@hlc.org |
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City of Hope, Genentech Bring New Life to Lymphoma Patient
San Diego postal worker Juan Yee was diagnosed in 2012 with Stage 4 follicular lymphoma, the most common slow-growing form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He had a relapse in 2016 and then again in 2018 and was ready to let nature take its course, saying "I couldn't go through chemo again. It was painful and I was tired. I was done."
Then, Yee was put in contact with Dr. Elizabeth Budde, an associate professor in City of Hope's Division of Lymphoma in the Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, who was overseeing a trial on a new antibody called mosunetuzumab developed by Genentech. (City of Hope and Genentech are both members of the Healthcare Leadership Council.) This drug, approved by the Food and Drug Administration, amps up the body's immune response to cancer, activating immune T-cells to recognize, attack and eliminate lymphoma cells. Five years after beginning this treatment, Yee is feeling healthy and thankful for a chance to share his story.
Dr. Budde said, "Thanks to Juan's participation along with other brave patients, our study demonstrated that a pure immune therapy based on bispecific T cell-engaging technology is proving to work very well with high response rates - and safely - in blood cancer patients who need more effective therapies and with fewer side effects." |
AmerisourceBergen Taking Action to Bring Greater Diversity to Pharmacy Field
The AmerisourceBergen Foundation is collaborating with Good Neighbor Pharmacy, a national independent pharmacy network offered through AmerisourceBergen, to launch a new scholarship program aimed at assisting Black and African-American graduate students pursuing a Pharmacy Doctorate degree, preferably at a Historically Black College or University.
The Good Neighbor Pharmacy Scholarship program is currently accepting applications and will announce its initial recipients this April. The program is the product of the AmerisourceBergen Foundation's and Good Neighbor Pharmacy's shared commitment to the advancement of inclusion across the pharmacy profession, where there remains a marked lack of diversity. AmerisourceBergen is a member of the Healthcare Leadership Council.
Ann Anaya, AmerisourceBergen's Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer said, "Today, less than 22 percent of all licensed pharmacists in the United States are non-white, and only five percent are African-American. And while the total number of Black and African-Americans students enrolled in pharmacy schools has increased in recent years, this group represents only nine percent of the total pharmacy school population. Diversity in healthcare is essential to advancing health equity and supporting cultural competencies within specific communities - and, as this data implies, there is still more work to be done to build a pharmacy workforce that is truly representative of the diverse patients and communities that pharmacists care for every day."
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