Raising the Bar for Sickle Cell Patients: Ted Love and Alan Anderson on The Long Run

Today’s guests on The Long Run are Ted Love and Alan Anderson.

Ted is the chairman of the board of directors at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. He’s perhaps best known for serving as CEO of Global Blood Therapeutics, the San Francisco Bay Area company that developed voxelotor (marketed as Oxbryta), a novel small molecule for sickle cell disease. The company was acquired by Pfizer for $5.4 billion in 2022.

Ted Love, chairman of the board, BIO

Alan Anderson is a physician-scientist who leads a comprehensive sickle cell disease treatment program in Greenville, South Carolina. He’s also the founder and executive director of Sickle Forward, a nonprofit that advances newborn screening and treatment of sickle cell disease in Africa.

I’ve worked closely this year with Ted and Alan as co-chairs on the Timmerman Traverse for Sickle Forward.

We’ve worked to recruit and lead a team of 20 biotech executives and investors to climb Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, and raise $1 million for Sickle Forward. The funds we raise will support low-cost, effective newborn screening in Africa. Kids who get diagnosed will get access to a series of practical interventions available in Africa – antibiotics, antimalarials, medications to deal with pain crises.

Alan Anderson, physician-scientist, executive director, Sickle Forward

A pilot program run by Anderson and colleagues has shown that newborn screening can save lives of these kids. The newborn screening tests only cost $1 apiece. That means a $1 million Kilimanjaro campaign can go a very long way to uplift kids with sickle cell disease in Africa.

I’m thrilled to announce that we have in fact exceeded our $1 million goal. We are now ready to go to the mountain, Sept. 8-19. 

Thanks to our major sponsors, including Silver Lake Research Corporation (the maker of the Hemotype SC test), Agios Pharmaceuticals, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Bluebird Bio, Pfizer, Sickle Scan, BigHat Biosciences, CRISPR Therapeutics, Evercore, Beam Therapeutics, Fulcrum Therapeutics, Goodwin, and The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia.

Thanks to the more than 1,400 donors and counting who have chipped in donations of all sizes.

That’s not all. By hitting the $1 million team goal for Sickle Forward, we have triggered an additional $1 million matching gift from Ted Love and his wife Joyce. They have agreed to donate that additional $1 million to the University of Alabama Birmingham to support sickle cell disease research. That means this campaign has now raised more than $2 million total.

This doubles the impact of our work and ensures that our campaign addresses both short-term and long-term needs for sickle cell patients around the world. 

And we’re not finished. If you go to Sickleforward.com, you can learn more about the organization and click on the link to add your donation. It’s not too late. We have a number of folks who are still striving to hit their $50,000 individual fundraising commitments. They’d very much appreciate your support.

This trip is timed to coincide with National Sickle Cell Awareness Month. I can’t think of a better way to raise awareness of this long-neglected disease, and this moment that’s brimming with possibilities for sickle cell disease patients.

In this episode, I talk with Ted and Alan about the needs for sickle cell disease patients, the improving set of tools and therapies, and our campaign to rally the biotech community, the medical community, and the patient community, to keep raising the bar.

Please join me and Ted Love and Alan Anderson on The Long Run.