Dr. Alan Anderson of Texas Children’s Hospital examining a cancer patient in Botswana.
Global HOPE: Addressing Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders in Africa
When a child is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease such as cancer, parents cling to hope that their child will survive. But hope is often disproportionate depending on where you live.
In Africa, more than 100,000 children will develop cancer this year, and the vast majority will die because they have little access to diagnostic and treatment services. This is a stark contrast to high-income countries where 80 percent of pediatric cancer patients will survive.
Led by the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation’s SECURE THE FUTURE® program, the Global HOPE (Hematology-Oncology Pediatric Excellence) initiative will address the lack of diagnosis, treatment and care in pediatric hematology-oncology in southern and eastern Africa.
Together with the Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers and Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas Children’s Hospital, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation will partner with the governments of Botswana, Malawi and Uganda to develop a comprehensive regional treatment network and provide financial resources to the program.
Through a combined grant of $100 million, the group will work over the next five years to help create an innovative pediatric hematology-oncology treatment network that will help build long-term capacity to treat and dramatically improve the prognosis of thousands of children with blood disorders and cancer in southern and eastern Africa.
The patient stories shared in this Annual Report depict individual patient responses to our medicines or investigational compounds and are not representative of all patient responses. In addition, there is no guarantee that potential drugs or indications still in development will receive regulatory approval.
This Annual Report contains statements about the company's future plans and prospects that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ from those indicated as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in the company's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K. These documents are available from the SEC, the Bristol-Myers Squibb website or from Bristol-Myers Squibb Investor Relations. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent our estimates only as of the date hereof and should not be relied upon as representing our estimates as of any subsequent date. While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so, even if our estimates change.
This Annual Report also contains certain non-GAAP financial measures, adjusted to include certain costs, expenses, gains and losses and other specified items. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measures are available on the company's website at www.bms.com.