This year, remarkable advancements in science converged with unparalleled policy and regulatory action, from President Obama’s announcement of the Precision Medicine Initiative to the U.S. House of Representatives’ overwhelming passage of the 21st Century Cures Act. Together with our partners across the medical research ecosystem, FasterCures was able to add to this momentum in 2015.

Since our founding, we have worked under the philosophy that being focused on patients would help us address some of the thorniest issues in medical research. In 2015, this emphasis on patient engagement was recognized more than ever in numerous places. Through our events, thought leadership, publications, Webinars, and more, you helped us to put patients at the center of it all by advancing the science of patient input, fostering better cross-sector collaborations, and amplifying all of the above in public policy.

Thank you for working with us to:

• Expand opportunities for patients to influence drug development and regulatory decisions through our work in educating regulators and policymakers about the importance of patient involvement in medical research and by launching an exciting and game-changing new program that catalyzes our work in this area, Patients Count: The Science of Patient Input. Stay tuned for details!
• Make it possible to find and connect with hundreds of cutting-edge research consortia around the globe by creating a free, Web-based Consortia-pedia Catalogue with profiles of more than 400 medical research collaborations from around the world – including their mission, structure, data sharing practices, partners, and more. Within a month of its launch, the Catalogue became one of the most visited pages on any of the FasterCures sites.
• Improve vital partnerships between universities and foundations by holding multiple sessions with leaders from both sectors, identifying areas of contention between technology transfer offices and foundations, and drafting model language aimed at addressing these areas of contention: early-stage research, commercialization of intellectual property, and royalty sharing.
• Move the needle in communication between patients and payers by hosting the Partnering with Patients on Value, Coverage, and Reimbursement workshop and releasing a corresponding report, which was our most downloaded publication of the year – work that we’ll kick into high gear in 2016.
• Expand the reach and impact of the venture philanthropy model by welcoming new participating organizations to The Research Acceleration and Innovation Network (TRAIN) and by creating online toolkits of resources and templates to help disease research foundations craft more effective, mutually beneficial partnerships with academia and industry.
• Foster the outcomes-oriented collaborations needed for medical progress through the seventh annual Partnering for Cures meeting, which brought together nearly 800 of the most disruptive thinkers in medical research as participants, not just attendees.

We have hard work ahead of us to advance these initiatives in 2016. But we are more encouraged than ever that our mission of saving lives by saving time is achievable. We look forward to working with all of you on many things going forward.

Best wishes for a happy and a healthy new year!

Margaret Anderson
Executive Director, FasterCures