Playing our Part in Powering Breakthroughs

August 26, 2024 by Jennifer Meade

The Heart of Aldevron Advocacy

Aldevron Advocacy. Two words that carry the full weight of what Aldevron believes in as an organization. We know Advocacy is a powerful tool to drive change. Our associates wake up every day determined and dedicated to living our Vision of a world where every cure is possible. That’s why we have made a renewed commitment to Aldevron Advocacy – investing additional resources and providing a strategic direction that impacts our internal teams alongside the clients and patients we serve.

Aldevron Advocacy will formally launch a newly crafted and intentional program with an initial focus on “New Frontiers in Cellular Immunotherapies.” The schedule will include engagement with the Emily Whitehead Foundation and a robust slate of programming that each member of the Aldevron team can participate in, and support.

Emily Whitehead
Emily Whitehead is alive today because of innovations in advanced therapies - medicines that are based on genes, tissues, or cells. Diagnosed at age five in 2010, Emily was the first pediatric patient to be treated with a CAR T-cell therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Her doctors had no idea if the treatment would work and if it did, how long it might last, but the results were dramatic. Emily is now twelve years in remission.

Since her treatment, more than 30,000 children have been treated, but that’s only a fraction of the need that exists. With about 400,000 children newly diagnosed with cancer each year, we must continue to develop more efficient processes and maximize the impact of cellular immunotherapies for more patients in need.

The Emily Whitehead Foundation is dedicated to supporting research that will improve cancer treatment options for those facing a similar battle to Emily’s. The Whiteheads continue to travel the world to share her story and inspire action, spreading awareness of the need for continued research such as CAR T-cell therapy and other immunotherapies. The Whitehead family is the epitome of advocacy - the connector that brings us all together in a shared mission.

How Aldevron Partnerships Power Breakthroughs
At Aldevron, our commitment to patients like Emily is at the heart of everything we do. It powers our relationships with our clients and the patient communities they serve. For more than 26 years, Aldevron has contributed essential components to the development of potentially life-changing therapies.

But now more than ever, we realize that addressing these challenging conditions requires an expanded team of dedicated researchers, industry, manufacturers, decision-makers, and yes – patients, all partnering for a common cause: a big picture approach to bringing advanced therapies to those in need. And this shared approach requires Discipline, Innovation, Fortitude, Teamwork, and Optimism, values that drive our work every day at Aldevron.

That is why we are wrapping our Aldevron Advocacy programming this fall around the work the Whitehead Foundation is doing to further expand access to life-saving therapies around the world. The anchor of our efforts starts in September when a group of Aldevron associates travel to Philadelphia to attend the Emily Whitehead Foundation’s Believe Ball, an event that connects advocates who want to “activate the cure” for more children like Emily. While there, they will tour the University of Pennsylvania (UPENN) lab along with families and children who have benefited from these innovations.

This invigorated focus on Aldevron Advocacy reinforces the vital role we play as advocates enabling the development of life-changing therapies and working to meet the needs that still exist. I am looking forward to a program where each of us understands how our efforts make meaningful and high-impact change.

This is just the beginning.

• Visit the Emily Whitehead Foundation website
• Have questions on this topic? Contact Jennifer Meade
• Have an idea for a topic? Let us know!

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