as ensure access to these healthcare
solutions for communities in need.
Our goal is to empower and enable
innovation – wherever it may be found.
We engage in educational programs, a
funding series, and many other initiatives,
with the express intent to help innovators
build skills, competencies, and networks
so they can translate novel ideas into new
opportunities that will advance the field of
science and medicine.
To amplify the best early stage science,
in 2012, our Company established regional
hubs, or Innovation Centers (JLABS), in four
of the world’s leading innovation hotspots:
London, Boston, San Francisco, and
Shanghai. The goal of these Innovation
Centers is to advance the development
of new healthcare solutions by catalyzing
collaborations in science and technology
across continents.
Our JLABS teams further advance these
objectives, providing local incubators
on-going support (including R&D, funding,
and commercial expertise) to foster the
growth of a community of entrepreneurs
developing new health ventures in
oncology, immunology, neuroscience,
cardiovascular and metabolism, infectious
diseases, and vaccines.
Such initiatives aim to break down
persistent hurdles so that innovative
science and technology can become a
viable commercial solution, as part of a
broader mission to improve the health
and well-being of people around the
world. But beyond science, we recognize
the value of collaboration to enhance
access to medical tools. We place equal
value on developing innovations as we do
on ensuring that they reach the families
and communities that need them.
One example of the innovation we
strive for is our partnership with Children
Without Worms. The program fosters
collaborations with governments, the
private sector, and NGO partners, each
united to reach a single goal – eliminating
intestinal worm infections (soil-transmitted
helminths, or STH) in school-age children.
Nearly one billion children are at risk.
While STH is rarely fatal, the damage
of repeated worm infection causes
irreversible damage and prevents
children from being able to learn and
grow into healthy and productive adults.
Johnson & Johnson provides deworming
medicines so that communities in need
can access treatment, but deworming
medicines are only part of the equation
that children ultimately need.
As such, this innovative partnership
with Children Without Worms calls on
donors and governments of affected
regions to support an integrated
approach, which includes mass
treatment of school-age and preschool-
age children with deworming medicines,
and prevention via access to and use of
clean water and good hygiene practices.
It is a collaboration founded
on innovation and part of a global
movement to rid the world of an
entirely preventable disease.
Beyond our work in preventing intestinal
worm infections, we are committed to
working with donors and governments,
civil society, academia, and the private
sector to ensure that treatments that
target pressing public health issues
become an integral part of efforts to keep
vulnerable families and communities
healthy for generations to come.
With so many people around the
world still in need, coupled with the
emergence of new public health
challenges, Johnson & Johnson and
Janssen understand the importance
of overturning every stone to find new
medicines and solutions to improve
global public health. Collaboration is
key to this end.
We will continue to push the
boundaries of medicine and science to
tackle these challenges, and reverse the
damage diseases like STH have caused.
We will not stop looking for solutions,
and we will call upon the global health
community, at all levels and across
sectors, to work collectively towards
shared goals of a healthier world. ■
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