Bringing Our Bold Science into Action
Genmab is an international biotechnology company with the core purpose to improve the lives of people with cancer. Below, CEO Jan van de Winkel highlights Genmab’s efforts to work with healthcare and patient advocacy communities to understand the barriers in cancer care.
Around the world, we are seeing significant progress in the fight against cancer. New treatments and cures, better screening and diagnosis and healthier habits have all contributed to this welcome trend. But we still have a lot of work to do.
While cancer disease statistics vary from country to country, gaps in healthcare worldwide continue to persist and have widened during the COVID-19 pandemic. For people fighting cancer, there are still too many inequities and barriers to care.?
Understanding the Care Gap
The theme for World Cancer Day 2022, “Close the Care Gap,” could not be more relevant and urgent today. Together with the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and the American Cancer Society (ACS), who we proudly sponsor, we look forward to raising awareness of cancer, improving access to care and accelerating progress for patients.
In collaboration with UICC and ACS, we recently gathered a group of experts to better understand the care gap experienced by cancer patients and the healthcare community.
Our esteemed panel included: Dr. Gilberto Lopes who is on the Board of Directors of the Union for International Cancer Control and is a hematologist and medical oncologist with the University of Miami, Florida; Tawana Thomas Johnson, Chief Diversity Officer at the American Cancer Society; Jacqueline Daly from the European Cancer Patient Coalition; and Gemma Henderson, sharing her experience with lymphoma.?
We covered a lot of ground, unpacking the barriers to cancer care as well as understanding what inequity really means and what Genmab can do to bring patient voices into drug development and increase diversity in our clinical trials. ?
Bringing Our Bold Science into Action
As we look ahead to finding more solutions, I reflect on the work we are doing at Genmab. Our team of researchers and scientists are finding ways to put patient data back in their hands by designing systems that deliver information to clinical trial participants via their physicians. We also have teams working on point of care biomarker lab testing to improve access to clinical trials for patients, reducing the number of visits to the clinic or hospital.
Each day, we look for new ways to improve. Everyone at Genmab works together with an intent to make an effort to do more for underserved populations to close the care gap.
Since Genmab was founded more than 20 years ago, there are 39 investigational new drug applications for antibodies created by Genmab or with Genmab’s technologies. Those have led to 23 Genmab-created investigational medicines currently in clinical trials, as well as five approved medicines incorporating Genmab’s innovation.
But, we believe there is a lot more that needs to be done to transform cancer care.
Who We Do It For
I’m a scientist by training, profession and at heart, so nothing is more exciting or more motivating than truly making a difference for a patient.
Gemma Henderson told our team recently:
“Cancer is only a chapter in my life, rather than the whole book. No one fights alone. These words carried me through my treatments as I realized how many people were behind me, from family and friends, to nurses and doctors, to researchers.”
What we do at Genmab is for Gemma and for the millions of people facing cancer. Through our work, we want everyone to get a chance to live their lives beyond the disease.
I never forget, and neither do my colleagues, who we do it for and that the needs of a patient with cancer are the same: more sunrises, more smiles and laughter, more time with loved ones.