- Hi, I'm Nancy Brown,
Chief Executive Officer of the American Heart Association.
And I'm so honored to be joined today by Bob Bradway,
the CEO of Amgen, and a proud member
of the American Heart Association's CEO Roundtable.
Bob, thank you so much for joining me.
- Thanks, Nancy.
It's wonderful to be here with you.
- I appreciate it.
And I have been so inspired by the work
of our CEO Roundtable member companies
in helping to fight the COVID-19 pandemic,
and all of the tremendous work
that's being done in healthcare,
in pharmaceuticals, in our communities,
and Amgen has been right at the top of the list
of helping to provide support during this time.
And I wondered if you could tell us
what you're most proud of related to
Amgen's COVID-19 response efforts?
- Well, Nancy, I think the first thing for us
is that fortunately our staff and their families
have largely been safe throughout this disruption,
and so our focus has been on making sure
that we do all that we can to help our families,
and our staff members, and the communities that we work in,
and again, so far we feel we've been very fortunate.
But we're excited to be in the hunt for therapies
that might make a difference in this pandemic,
and we're advancing a couple of novel ideas
that we hope may help in the fight against the disease,
but we don't wanna lose sight either
of the patients that we serve with our medicines,
particularly in cardiovascular disease area,
Nancy, as you know, and we're concerned about
not having those chronic diseases
relegated to the back burner
while we're all focused on fighting the pandemic,
because we know that the effect of that
will be negative down the road for society.
So we're excited that we've been able to
supply all of our patients with medicines,
excited that our clinical trials are still moving forward,
and encouraged by the work that the AHA, in particular,
is doing to try to keep cardiovascular disease,
and the things that we can do to prevent it,
front and center throughout this crisis.
- Yeah, those are such important points.
We worry a lot at the American Heart Association,
as we also have ramped up our COVID-19 response,
that we can not forget the basics.
That people must manage their cholesterol,
their blood pressure, their blood sugar,
get the right amount of physical activity,
and eat an appropriate diet to avoid risks
of having a heart attack, having a stroke.
You know, heart disease is still
the number one killer of Americans,
and I think we've also seen that individuals
who have these risk factors
are at higher risk for contracting
a terrible virus like the coronavirus.
And you mentioned your support
of the American Heart Association,
we are so grateful that Amgen has joined us
in helping to find answers to the questions about COVID-19,
and we'd love to hear more about what prompted you
to be such a generous supporter,
and what do you hope we can do together?
- Well, first Nancy, thank you for convening the effort
as rapidly as you did at the AHA.
We think there are so many things about this virus
that we don't know, and so many things about
what its clinical impact might be that we need to know,
and so we're delighted that you have
pulled together the resources,
and have begun the studies of these important questions.
And as an innovative company
focused on cardiovascular disease,
we felt, frankly, a responsibility to try to be
part of the solution with you.
So we know that this virus is having an effect
on cardiovascular disease, we know, as you said Nancy,
that those who have
existing heart disease
are at greater risk, seemingly,
of having significant challenges with the virus.
And so again, we want to be part of making sure
that people who already know that they have heart disease
are doing all the things that they need to do
to prevent having that be a contributor
to why they struggle to manage this virus.
So there are lots of things that we can do
together as a community, and Nancy,
we're grateful for your leadership in pulling together
the various strands to try to make that a reality.
- Well Bob, thank you so much for that,
and you know, at the core of some of the work
that we're doing at the AHA,
with support of yours and others,
like the COVID-19 registry
and the Rapid Action Research Grants,
we're really trying to scientifically understand
what is happening to the human body
of individuals who contract COVID-19,
and these unexplainable cardiovascular
and neurological events are really of question.
When you think about gaps in understanding,
what comes to your mind of the issues
that you hope we'll be able to address together?
- Well, I think unfortunately, Nancy,
there are still so many gaps in our understanding
of this virus and its pathological consequences.
So we have a lot to learn,
and I think the key is to try to learn as quickly as we can,
and to share the information that we gather in an open forum
so scientists around the world
have the opportunity to digest it,
and to build on a knowledge with each other.
And that's when science is at its best,
is when we're able to share it rapidly,
we're when able to work as a community
to try to improve our understanding,
and that's what I see happening.
In my career, Nancy, I've never seen a moment
where the industry as worked as quickly,
or as collaboratively, across the healthcare ecosystem
to try to tackle a challenge.
And we certainly have, in this particular virus,
a real challenge, but we're making progress every day.
And again, I think the work that we're trying to do
to help understand the cardiovascular consequences
of this virus will be important,
particularly as we get down the road
in progression of this pandemic.
- Yeah, such important points,
and it's been wonderful to see the global scientific
and industry collaboration.
Everyone's on the hunt together
to find the treatments, to find the vaccine,
and to remind people that underlying health conditions
can make you more at risk.
And those certainly are core and fundamental things
at the American Heart Association,
that we are thinking a lot about.
Bob, before I let you go today, is there anything else
that you'd like to say to our listeners?
- Well, Nancy, I would just like to remind everyone
that as you said earlier, cardiovascular disease
remains the leading killer of people on our planet,
and that's our challenge.
Now, the good news is much of heart disease
is predictable and preventable,
and what we need to make sure at this moment in time,
is that we're not forgetting that we can predict
those who are at greatest risk,
and we can take action to try to prevent them
from developing significant disease.
So, I know that we're all focused at the moment
on the challenge of fighting this pandemic,
but we mustn't do it in a way
that creates a secondary healthcare crisis
that could've been predictably avoided.
So thank you Nancy for the work that you're doing,
and the efforts that you're leading
to try to help remind everybody how important it is
to manage the risks of cardiovascular disease.
- And Bob Bradway, thank you to you and Amgen,
because without your support,
we would not be able to do the things that we're doing.
We are so grateful to you,
and to the entire CEO Roundtable,
for the leadership in the AHA.
Thank you so much!
- Thank you, Nancy.