365 Days of Caring: 13 Ways Johnson & Johnson Helped Progress Health for Humanity in 2018

When you receive a cancer diagnosis, it’s natural to want to go online to get more information—and easy to get overwhelmed. That’s why Janssen Oncology, part of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, launched Cancer.com: a one-stop digital destination that's tailored to patients and their caregivers based on several different types of cancer and where they are in their journey. The goal? Help guide them through many of the decisions they’ll have to make when faced with the disease.

With a population of over 1.3 billion—and growing—it’s not always easy for many people in India to get access to the medical care they need. In fact, there are only six physicians and 13 nurses for every 10,000 people in the country.

The mobile Johnson & Johnson Institute on Wheels, which got rolling last March, is helping to train healthcare professionals—doctors, nurses and paramedical staff—over the next five years in service of providing better outcomes for patients across the country. So far, it has reached 73 towns and 113 medical institutions, training over 10,500 healthcare professionals.

In May 2018, Johnson & Johnson joined forces with academic and industry partners to form a European network called conect4children that’s helping facilitate pediatric clinical trials with the hope of developing better treatments for babies, kids and young people.

In the seven years since its inception, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS— an incubator that helps healthcare entrepreneurs bring their innovations to life by providing mentoring and resources like lab space—has supported more than 500 start-ups at its nine locations around the world, from California to Belgium. In June 2018, JLABS @ NYC, which will focus on biotech, pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer health innovations, was added to the roster.

And one healthcare challenge in particular got an R&D boost this month, too, when the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson initiated a Phase 1b/2 clinical development program as part of a collaboration with Legend Biotech USA to develop a potential chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy (CAR-T) for multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer.

In 2017, Johnson & Johnson and global partners launched the Imbokodo study to see if a new preventive vaccine regimen might be able to help reduce HIV infections in women in sub-Saharan Africa—a population at higher risk of contracting the disease. In July 2018, early stage data from the APPROACH study was published in The Lancet, suggesting that the regimen induced a robust immune response to the virus in humans. Just a few weeks later, the first long-term immune response results from APPROACH were presented at the AIDS 2018 conference.

Another important company commitment: providing resources to those living with mental illness. Due in part to a lack of local support, up to 85% of people with serious mental disorders living in low- and middle-income countries haven’t received treatment for their conditions, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

To help address this unmet need in Rwanda, Johnson & Johnson announced a partnership in August with the Government of Rwanda and other organizations to improve access to quality mental healthcare in the country, including training community healthcare workers—with hopes to eventually expand the program throughout sub-Saharan Africa. One focus of the partnership: creating a platform for patients with schizophrenia to have access to treatment with long-acting injectables, which may be particularly helpful to those who don't have frequent access to medical care.

At the 2018 Global Citizen Festival in New York City, Johnson & Johnson announced that it was joining the WHO, government partners and other organizations to create the Health for All Alliance, which will work to ensure healthcare workers worldwide can access the skills and digital tools they need to help save lives.

And through a collaboration with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and The Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V., part of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, announced it will work on developing novel vaccines to protect against three potential global threats for which no vaccines currently exist: the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus, the brain-damaging Nipah virus, and the Lassa virus, which causes hemorrhagic fever.

The company’s inaugural Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge invited nurses to submit concepts for life-changing devices, health technologies, protocols or treatment approaches that have the potential to transform human health. During National Nurses Week in May 2019, two awardees were announced, with each receiving $50,000 in grants, plus ongoing mentoring and coaching from Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS, to help bring their solutions to life.

Johnson & Johnson made an important commitment to the planet in October, too. Plastic waste is one of the most urgent environmental issues of our time, which is why Johnson & Johnson Consumer signed the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment—alongside more than 250 other companies, governments and NGOs—pledging to use more recycled materials in its packaging, reduce reliance on single-use packages, and ensure that 100% of its plastic packaging be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.

Johnson & Johnson has had a strong global partnership with UNICEF for over 30 years. In November 2018, the company strengthened that bond through a $10 million pledge to support health workers in delivering care to newborns, children and mothers around the world, including among Indigenous communities in Vietnam and the Philippines.

Soil-transmitted helminths (STH), also known as intestinal worm infections, affect approximately 1.5 billion people worldwide. Kids are particularly vulnerable to STH, which can often lead to malnutrition and even impaired cognitive development. So in December, Janssen submitted a prequalification dossier to the WHO for a pediatric formulation of a worm-fighting medication that can either be chewed or mixed with a small amount of water to form a soft mass that's easier for very young children to swallow.

In April 2019, the WHO prequalified the formulation, which will support the introduction of this medication in STH treatment programs in high-burden countries. Johnson & Johnson will soon begin distributing it as part of the 200 million doses of the treatment it’s committed to donating around the world annually.