News & Events

Treatment for All

Talking about the WFH Humanitarian Aid Program with former WFH President Mark Skinner

Mark Skinner’s life bridges 2 eras of hemophilia treatment. The former president of the World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH), he grew up at a time when factor VIII replacement was nonexistent or often limited, used only after bleeding occurred. Now, he’s a part of this emerging era when treatment options are multiplying, and prophylaxis has become the standard of care.

Meanwhile, availability of treatment in the developing world is lagging. The lack of access to care and treatment in developing countries is an urgent and important public health challenge, as the cost of products to treat is prohibitively expensive for the majority of those affected with a bleeding disorder. That’s why Genentech and our parent company Roche are providing prophylactic treatment to as many as 1,000 people with hemophilia A in developing countries over the course of 5 years, with a focus on high-need patients, such as people of all ages with factor VIII inhibitors and children without factor VIII inhibitors. This donation, and others like it, have enabled the WFH Humanitarian Aid program to provide consistent and predictable access to prophylaxis.

Treatment for All

Skinner’s efforts in this area are summed up in the WFH commitment to Treatment for All. We spoke to Skinner about his time as president of the WFH and what Treatment for All means in practical terms.

“The goal is to bring prevention and early intervention to the developing world,” says Skinner. “It took 70 years to get to where we are today in the US. By working with partners, we can shorten that time in the developing world.”

“We coined ‘Treatment for All’ because we needed a vision statement everyone could rally behind,” says Skinner. “We knew it wouldn’t be achievable tomorrow, but it gave us a goal that we could move toward each year as we made strategic plans.”

Sustainability is crucial to the WFH strategy. “In the early 2000s, we began asking donor companies to commit to multiyear donations of product.”

Maximizing the Impact

Part of planning is understanding everything people with hemophilia need, beyond medicine. “As we go into a country, we assess the kind of healthcare support that’s present. We make sure that we can move medicine through the system well. We need to be sure that healthcare professionals and patients will receive the training they need for prophylaxis.”

Genentech and Roche have worked closely with the WFH to maximize the impact of donated prophylaxis. The WFH identifies those countries that have both a great need for access to care and also have healthcare systems in place to effectively use donated treatment. In this way, they ensure their contributions make the biggest possible difference.

The planning is grounded in a broad understanding of how hemophilia products must be stored and used in order to benefit patients. Genentech and Roche are funding training, lab facilities, and transportation infrastructure, which are all critical parts of patient care.

“Now we can plan, rather than just react to situations,” adds Skinner.