Bristol Myers Squibb and the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, are actively and separately contributing to relief efforts around the world. Together, Bristol Myers Squibb and the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation have contributed more than $22 million in financial support and needed products (e.g. PPE and medical equipment) to relief efforts in 40 countries. We’re focusing on areas of highest unmet need, including ensuring basic human needs, addressing medical supply shortages and supporting continued care of our most vulnerable communities.
The Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation has supported nearly 50 organizations in the U.S. that provide critical aid and more than 150 organizations across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America that ensure basic human needs and enable continued patient care, along with global organizations supporting those on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response.
To help address the areas of highest unmet need by the patients and customers we serve, the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation has contributed to more than 40 patient advocacy groups and professional societies on the frontlines of patient care, and Bristol Myers Squibb is engaging with more than 250 patient and professional organizations to support research, education, patient psychosocial support and basic human needs.
Notable examples include:
We are also working with researchers, the biotech community and the broader life sciences industry on ways we together can accelerate therapies for COVID-19.?
Among other efforts, we have identified approximately 1,000 compounds in our discovery library that we are making available to?collaborators?for screening for potential treatments for COVID-19.
We are evaluating certain medicines in our portfolio that could be included in near-term clinical trials with a focus on agents that may have an impact on the inflammatory immune response associated with COVID-19. This research may advance as either company-sponsored or investigator-sponsored trials under the leadership of a Bristol Myers Squibb cross-functional team focused on advancing this science with a sense of urgency.
We are also participating in several cross-industry groups and public-private partnerships designed to foster collaboration and coordinate industry response efforts, and thereby accelerate the development, manufacture, and delivery of vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments for COVID-19. Partnerships include the Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) public-private partnership formed by National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Foundation for the NIH (FNIH) and a consortium of life sciences companies supporting the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator launched by the Gates Foundation, Wellcome and Mastercard.
We are proud of our colleagues around the world, who mobilized to help our communities and industry respond to the COVID-19 crisis. Our colleagues who are licensed healthcare professionals are being supported as they volunteer in local hospitals and are continuing to receive pay. Our colleagues across the world have also volunteered virtually. Through Skills2Give, an ongoing Bristol Myers Squibb volunteer program, colleagues in the U.S., U.K. and Australia have the option to select from virtual volunteer opportunities with thousands of nonprofit organizations. Over 3,000 employees are registered with the program.
