CARY, NC (November 11, 2014) – The CEO Roundtable on Cancer presented AstraZeneca and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center with the 2014 Dr. Charles A. Sanders Life Sciences Awards in recognition of their innovative and collaborative work on Project Data Sphere, LLC, an independent not-for-profit initiative of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer’s Life Sciences Consortium.
“The CEO Roundtable on Cancer has assembled a “dream team” for Project Data Sphere, LLC in the fight against cancer and AstraZeneca and Memorial Sloan Kettering have proven to be MVPs on this great team,” said Coach Mike Krzyzewski, head coach of the Duke University Blue Devils and the USA Men’s National Team Gold Medalist in 2014. Coach K, an Honorary Member of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer since its founding, presented “The Charlies” to this year’s award winners.
AstraZeneca was recognized for its role not only as a pioneering cancer data provider to Project Data Sphere, LLC but also in becoming the leading provider of clinical trial data in this effort to enable unprecedented research collaboration to solve complex scientific problems. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center was also among the first organizations to provide data, creating a model for other academic cancer centers and research cooperative groups to share historical, patient-level, comparator-arm cancer data via the Project Data Sphere platform.
The Project Data Sphere data sharing platform (www.ProjectDataSphere.org) was launched in April of this year, with the goal of advancing research to improve the lives of cancer patients around the world. In order to ensure that researchers can realize the full potential of clinical trial data, Project Data Sphere, LLC teamed with CEO Roundtable on Cancer member SAS, a leader in data and health analytics, to make state-of-the-art analytic tools freely available to all users within the Project Data Sphere environment. In 2013, SAS, together with Hogan Lovells and Sanofi received the inaugural Dr. Charles A. Sanders Life Sciences Awards.
“As evolving research exposes the complexities of cancer, the need to be innovative in how we collaborate and share knowledge is ever more important,” said Dr. Charles A. Sanders, Chairman of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health. “We salute two great organizations that have risen to this challenge and that are leading the way for others.”
“The Charlie” award was created in honor of Dr. Sanders, former chairman and CEO of Glaxo Inc., who previously served as the Chairman of Project HOPE and director general of Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Sanders has been a driving force behind the development of many innovative pharmaceutical products and has helped chart the course for health education and medical research in the United States and around the globe.
Chris Viehbacher, chairman of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer, which was established in 2001 by President George H.W. Bush with the mandate to bring bold and imaginative solutions to cancer research and patient care, said, “Coach K, Dr. Sanders, and great organizations like AstraZeneca and Memorial Sloan Kettering embody the innovation and collaboration that is at the core of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer. They are not only leading, but leading by example.”
About The CEO Roundtable on Cancer
The CEO Roundtable on Cancer was founded in 2001, when former President George H.W. Bush challenged a group of executives to “do something bold and venturesome about cancer within your own corporate families.” The CEOs responded by creating and encouraging the widespread adoption of the CEO Cancer Gold Standard™ which calls for organizations to evaluate their health benefits and workplace culture and take extensive, concrete actions in five key areas of health and wellness to fight cancer in the workplace. The Life Sciences Consortium (LSC) was formed by the CEO Roundtable on Cancer as a means of bringing together leading oncology pharmaceutical/biotechnology companies to enable a transformation in research and development activities that will deliver more effective oncology therapies to patients faster by collaborating on solving issues common to all cancer companies engaged in drug discovery and development that cannot be solved by any single company alone. An earlier outcome of the LSC was the creation of the START Clauses for clinical trial agreements in conjunction with the National Cancer Institute. The creation of these “common language” contract provisions aims to shorten the contract negotiation time prior to opening a clinical research trial. For more information, please visit www.CEORoundtableOnCancer.org.
Project Data Sphere®, LLC
Project Data Sphere, LLC (PDS), an independent, not-for-profit initiative of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer’s Life Sciences Consortium (LSC), operates the Project Data Sphere platform (www.ProjectDataSphere.org) which provides one place where the research community can broadly share, integrate and analyze historical, patient-level cancer phase III comparator-arm data with the goal of advancing future research to improve the lives of cancer patients and their families around the world.
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For more information:
CEO Roundtable on Cancer
Therese Martin
P: 919-531-3123