Frank Duff
Senior Vice President of Virology Therapeutic Area, Gilead Sciences
Overcoming emerging viruses is a global challenge that reaches beyond medicine.
While vaccines and antiviral treatments are important tools to address viral outbreaks, virology specialist Frank Duff believes it will take more to address the world’s toughest healthcare challenges. Stigma and discrimination are common barriers to care for the communities most impacted.
Partnership is key
“We’ve seen it in our work with HIV and viral hepatitis and again during the Covid-19 pandemic. You can develop innovative medicines, but without strong partnerships and opportunities to reach out to communities that are poorly served or do not have access to healthcare information – the benefits of treatment can only be taken so far,” says Duff, Senior Vice President of Virology Therapeutic Area, Gilead Sciences.
Duff argues that partnership is a key element in the process. “We work with government agencies, non-profit organisations, healthcare providers and community groups. We seek opportunities to understand medical needs and to help with dissemination of appropriate healthcare information so that people are informed. It is this type of collaboration that led to the development of Gilead’s Covid-19 Community Outreach Webinars in the U.S., which served as a public service announcement aimed at overcoming vaccine hesitancy among communities with low rates of vaccination and high disease rates,” he says.
Global efforts must embrace cross-sector collaboration to help reduce and, ultimately, eliminate health disparities.
Grant funding
Gilead also recently announced it will join a coalition of LGBTQ+ and human rights-focused organisations and mobilise to address the monkeypox public health emergency. As part of the collaboration, the company will provide up to $5 million in global grant funding to immediately support public education and vaccine hesitancy communications, a public policy response and a global outbreak emergency fund for community organisations in regions with active monkeypox outbreaks.
“More than medicine, in my view, acknowledges that healthcare solutions are multifactorial, and we are particularly aware of it in the challenges of moving toward greater health equity,” says Duff. “Global efforts must embrace cross-sector collaboration to help reduce and, ultimately, eliminate health disparities.”
Job Bag number: UK-UNB-2859
Date of Prep: September 2022