On December 13, RPV’s Wes Michael and Laura Mullen took part in a very special event in Lawrenceville, NJ. The 2022 BioNJ Patient Advocacy Summit was a program with the goals of educating, engaging, and empowering, and it did just that – and then some. We heard from a terrific panel on Ensuring Diversity in Clinical Trials featuring Tinamarie Duff, Elizabeth Barksdale, Amesika Nyaku, and Martina Flammer, MD, MBA; we learned about The Impact of Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) Practices on Patients from another fantastic panel featuring Dr. Andrew G. Kaufman, Alyssa Lovill of the Epilepsy Foundation, Brian Oliveira, PharmD, and Pfizer’s Molly Williams; and we were moved and inspired by the words of Maria Kefalas, founder of The Calliope Joy Foundation and author of “Harnessing Grief: A Mother’s Quest for Meaning and Miracles.” It was terrific to make some new patient advocacy friends (shout outs to the dedicated epilepsy and rare disease advocates we met) as well as industry connections from PTC Therapeutics, Amicus, Pfizer, and more. The event was a great reminder of why we all do what we do – for patients and families. We appreciate your having us, BioNJ, and a big thank you to Bristol Myers Squibb for so graciously hosting the event on their beautiful campus.
