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BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB JOINS WITH NJ CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL IN LAUNCHING NEW CENTER FOR IMMUNE SYSTEM DISORDERS AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES INCLUDING HIV/AIDS
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Press release from BMS
(NEW BRUNSWICK, New Jersey-November 30, 2007) - Underscoring its worldwide commitment to children with HIV/AIDS, Bristol-Myers Squibb today joined Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in commemorating the opening of a new clinical center at The Bristol-Myers Squibb Children's Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital dedicated to the research and treatment of children's immune system disorders and infectious diseases.
The Bristol-Myers Squibb Pediatric Infectious Disease and Immunology Center is one of three new clinical centers at the children's hospital made possible by a $5 million gift from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation.
Coming on the eve of World AIDS Day, the announcement of this newest center provided an occasion for company officials, hospital staff and UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School faculty and staff to remember children and all people affected by HIV/AIDS in the United States and throughout the world.
There are approximately 40 million people in the world living with HIV/AIDS, including 2.3 million children under the age of 15, according to a 2006 UNAIDS/World Health Organization report. In the United States, about one million people are living with HIV/AIDS, including approximately 10,000 children, according to a 2005 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The announcement also provided an opportunity to highlight ways in which groups and organizations are working together to combat the disease and provide care that is making a difference in children's lives.
"At Bristol-Myers Squibb, we believe that together we can prevail over serious illness," said Jill DeSimone, senior vice president of the company's U.S. Virology division. "We are committed as a company in the battle against HIV and AIDS here in our community and throughout the world, and we stand united with others who are working to improve the lives of children and all people afflicted with this debilitating disease."
The new Bristol-Myers Squibb Pediatric Infectious Disease and Immunology Center is the latest example of the company's support for the New Brunswick children's hospital, which was built in part with a philanthropic gift from Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation. The Center will not only treat pediatric HIV, it will also focus on emerging resistant infections, including those caused by community-acquired methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). This academic center will develop an immunology program in order to facilitate collaboration with other researchers within the medical school.
This past spring, The Bristol-Myers Squibb Children's Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital opened the Bristol-Myers Squibb Pediatric Rheumatology Center dedicated to the research and treatment of rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Last year, the children's hospital opened the Bristol-Myers Squibb Pediatric Metabolism Center to focus on obesity and its related health effects.
"Our hospital is extremely proud of our longstanding partnership with Bristol-Myers Squibb," said Stephen K. Jones, president and chief executive officer of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. "Thanks to their generous support, our children's hospital is helping families confront some of the most serious health threats facing children."
Bristol-Myers Squibb's SECURE THE FUTURE
The new Pediatric Infectious Disease and Immunology Center is also an example of the company's efforts to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic, not just through its medicines, but through philanthropy.
The most dramatic, global example is SECURE THE FUTURE, a $150 million commitment by Bristol-Myers Squibb to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa -- the largest corporate commitment of its kind ever made.
SECURE THE FUTURE focuses on helping women and children with the disease through a range of programs and activities, such as building a network of clinical centers for children developed in partnership with Baylor College of Medicine to treat HIV-infected children. Three such centers are already in operation in Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. Three more are under construction in Uganda, Burkina Faso and Kenya.
The company has also joined with Baylor to create the Pediatric AIDS Corps, which is sending 50 physicians a year to Africa over five years to treat children with AIDS and train local medical professionals. These physicians are expected to treat up to 100,000 HIV-infected children and train hundreds of health care workers.
"Bristol-Myers Squibb has set the bar when it comes to a corporate response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic," said Mark W. Kline, M.D., president of the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas Children's Hospital. "SECURE THE FUTURE represents a new standard in terms of the size of the commitment and the scope, which includes community outreach and education as well as expanding access to care."
Benefiting Children in New Jersey and Africa
Leaders of the New Jersey children's hospital joined with officials of Bristol-Myers Squibb in expressing hope that these philanthropic efforts in Africa and the company's support for the children's hospital would come to intersect in ways that benefit children in both places.
Patricia Whitley-Williams, M.D., knows the conditions in Africa and in New Jersey first hand. Whitley-Williams is Physician-in-Chief at the New Brunswick children's hospital. She is also Interim Chair and professor of the department of Pediatrics and Chief, Division of Pediatric Allergy, Immunology and Infectious Disease at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Furthermore, in 2006 she spent six weeks in South Africa on a medical mission sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Whitley-Williams said the treatment, research and education initiatives developed at the Children's Hospital can provide valuable lessons for physicians in Africa. At the same time, physicians working in Africa could share best practices with colleagues in New Jersey.
"One of the many things I learned in South Africa is that children and families who are infected and affected by HIV/AIDS are the same everywhere, with many of the same issues," Whitley-Williams said. "There are issues of access to treatment, adherence to medications, and the challenge of delivering care in a child-friendly fashion, so clearly our physicians here and in Africa have much to learn from each other."
Bristol-Myers Squibb's Jill DeSimone noted that the company has been at the forefront of developing medicines to combat HIV/AIDS from the earliest days of the pandemic. Today the company is a worldwide leader in virology and has developed several HIV drugs that are used in combination with other HIV drugs to comprise the current standard of treatment - Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy or HAART.
DeSimone said the company also recognized early on that treating HIV/AIDS involves much more than medical care. It responded with a wide range of innovative philanthropic and patient support programs for individuals and communities.
In addition to its groundbreaking work in Africa, Bristol-Myers Squibb supports local, regional and national initiatives dedicated to HIV/AIDS prevention and education. In just the last year, for example, the company awarded a grant of nearly $20,000 to HiTops, a Mercer County-based non-profit group that promotes adolescent health, for an HIV/AIDS education program. It also created the "Light to Unite" campaign to help raise awareness of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States, pledging $250,000 this year to the National AIDS Fund, one of America's largest philanthropic organizations dedicated to eliminating HIV/AIDS. Bristol-Myers Squibb was also the premier sponsor of AIDS Walk New York, which promoted awareness of HIV/AIDS as it raised approximately $6.9 million for New York non-profits that support people living with the disease.
Reach out and Read
Bristol-Myers Squibb also joined with New Jersey's pharmaceutical and medical technology community through its trade association, the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey (HINJ), in supporting Reach Out and Read programs at various New Jersey hospitals, health clinics and pediatric offices.
Reach Out and Read is a national children's literacy program in which doctors give books to children at check-ups and advise parents about the importance of reading.
Bristol-Myers Squibb has already helped launch a children's literacy program modeled on Reach Out and Read program at one of its children's HIV/AIDS clinical centers in Africa, and is leading a company-wide fundraising initiative to establish the program at all of them.
In addition to the announcement of the new clinical center, the Health Care Institute of New Jersey delivered 1,000 new children's books to the Reach Out and Read program at The Bristol-Myers Squibb Children's Hospital.
"As a major partner of Reach Out and Read, New Jersey's pharmaceutical and medical technology companies have made a multi-year commitment to support existing Reach Out and Read sites throughout New Jersey, expand the program to unserved areas of the state and build an infrastructure so the program can grow and serve more children in need," said HINJ president Bob Franks. "Today we are proud to deliver 1,000 new books in support of the Reach Out and Read program at The Bristol-Myers Squibb Children's Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital."
Reach Out and Read Medical Director Perri Klass, M.D., said the program was founded on a belief that growing up reading is an essential part of growing up healthy and has been a prescription for improved literacy for millions of at-risk children.
"Reach Out and Read is about the importance of books and reading in children's lives," said Klass. "For children with HIV/AIDS, books and reading carry an important message of hope and joy, potential and possibility."
About The Bristol-Myers Squibb Children's Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital:
As New Jersey's largest and most comprehensive children's hospital, The Bristol-Myers Squibb Children's Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital offers specialties including cardiology and cardiac surgery, organ transplants, trauma treatment, fetal surgery, hematology/oncology and neurosurgery in a family-centered environment. It is consistently among the top-rated children's hospitals in America for patient satisfaction.
About UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School:
As one of the nation's leading comprehensive medical schools, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in education, research, health care delivery, and the promotion of community health. In cooperation with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, the medical school's principal affiliate, they comprise New Jersey's premier academic medical center. In addition, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has 34 other hospital affiliates and ambulatory care sites throughout the region.
About Bristol-Myers Squibb:
Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global pharmaceutical and related health care products company whose mission is to extend and enhance human life.
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