Pharma giant Bristol Myers Squibb and the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation announced a combined investment of $300 million as part of a series of commitments. For Bristol Myers Squibb and the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, the commitments are designed to address health disparities, increase clinical trial diversity and for Bristol Myers Squibb, to increase the company’s spend with diverse suppliers and continue to increase Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino representation at all levels of the company.
These commitments build on each entity’s experience addressing health disparities and, for Bristol Myers Squibb, its investments in increasing the diversity of its workforce.
The combined $300 million investment to health equity focuses on raising disease awareness and education, increasing health care access, and improving health outcomes for medically underserved populations. The BMS Foundation’s commitment to clinical trial diversity focuses on building clinical trial infrastructure in diverse communities and high disease burden areas in the U.S. and increasing the diversity of investigators through a fellowship program over five years.
“Our company has a long history of addressing health disparities as part of our overall mission to serve patients with serious disease,” said Giovanni Caforio, M.D., chairman and chief executive officer, Bristol Myers Squibb. “Now more than ever, we recognize the urgent need to do more to address serious gaps in care among the underserved in communities around the world. This commitment reflects our belief that investments toward achieving health equity, and increasing diversity and inclusion are opportunities to advance our vision of transforming patients’ lives through science.”
This investment follows Bristol Myers Squibb’s previous announcement to expand its existing patient support program to help eligible unemployed patients in the U.S. who have lost their health insurance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In recent months, though, COVID-19 has exposed the severity of social and health disparities in the U.S. that increase the risk for infection and poorer health outcomes for Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino communities.
Bristol Myers Squibb and the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation recognize the need to take concrete steps to better serve and collaborate with an increasingly diverse U.S. population and underserved communities around the world.
The commitments include:
- Increasing clinical trial diversity: Bristol Myers Squibb will extend the reach of clinical trials into underserved patient communities in urban and rural U.S. geographies. The Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation will train and develop 250 new racially and ethnically diverse clinical investigators who will have mentorship and training opportunities, and ultimately to enroll underserved patients into clinical trials.
“Clinical trial diversity needs acceleration. We see tremendous opportunity for longer-term, sustainable impact by supporting ethnically diverse physician scientists to engage in clinical research while also establishing clinical research sites in diverse communities,” said Samit Hirawat, M.D., chief medical officer, Bristol Myers Squibb.
“Over the next five years, we will extend the reach of our trials into underserved patient communities and the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation will train and develop 250 new racially and ethnically diverse clinical investigators that can enroll a diverse patient population in trials conducted across the industry.”
- Strengthening health equity work across the business: Bristol Myers Squibb will accelerate its efforts to reach at-risk patients with disease awareness and education programs and information about its patient support programs, including programs for people who cannot afford their medicines. Bristol Myers Squibb will also continue to advocate for policies that promote health equity.
- Increasing the company’s spend with diverse suppliers: Bristol Myers Squibb will spend $1 billion globally by 2025 with Black/African American and other diverse-owned businesses to help create jobs and generate positive economic impact in diverse communities.
- Increasing the diversity of the company’s workforce: Bristol Myers Squibb will expand the diversity of its workforce and leadership to ensure it reflects the evolving demographics of the patients the company serves. The company achieved gender parity across its workforce in 2015. By 2022, Bristol Myers Squibb aims to achieve gender parity at the executive level globally; double executive representation of Black/African American employees in the U.S.; and double executive representation of Hispanic/Latino employees in the U.S.
“As a patient focused company, it is vital that our workforce reflect the people, cultures and communities we serve,” added Ann Powell, chief human resources officer, Bristol Myers Squibb. “We recognize that meeting the needs of patients means we must continue to grow a powerfully diverse, and broadly inclusive, workforce.”
- Expanding our employee giving program: Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation will provide a 2-to-1 match for U.S. employee donations to organizations that fight health disparities and discrimination.
The commitments by the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation build on the more than 100 active grantee projects funded by the Foundation globally to improve access to care and support, and health outcomes that have reached nearly 1.5 million people worldwide. For more information on these commitments and the work Bristol Myers Squibb is doing to transform patients’ lives through science, visit BMS.com.
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