Commemorating Strong Partners with the Charles A. Sanders, MD, Partnership Award

In honor of former FNIH Chairman of the Board, Charles A. Sanders, MD, we celebrate our partners and their contributions through the annual Partnership Award. In keeping with Dr. Sanders’ vision, the award recognizes persons and/or organizations that have made significant contributions to our work in creating, implementing, and nurturing private-public partnerships that build bridges to breakthroughs in improved therapeutics, diagnostics, and potential cures. A committee comprised of FNIH Board members selected two partners, Amgen and Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, who have supported and accelerated the work of the FNIH for many years.
2022 Award Recipients
Amgen’s partnership over many years has had a strong impact on a diverse slate of FNIH initiatives, from clinical trials to mentorships to educational programs. Generous financial and scientific support from Amgen, a member of the FNIH Biomarkers Consortium, has advanced FNIH research initiatives in cancer, immunotherapy, cardiometabolic disease, and precision medicine.
“Our long association with the Foundation for the NIH highlights two hallmarks that guide everything we do at Amgen: innovation and partnership…Amgen’s work with the FNIH is an outstanding example of partnership,” shared Robert Bradway, CEO, Amgen. “Our two organizations have been collaborating very successfully on biomarkers in cancer, liver disease, and other serious diseases. We’re confident that this research will lead to more urgently needed treatments.”
As NIH Director from 2009 to 2021, Dr. Francis S. Collins robustly supported the mission of the FNIH, advancing a remarkable list of initiatives to expand scientific knowledge and pave the way for human rights, privacy issues, and ethics. Dr. Collins partnered with the NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute and the Genetic Association Information Network (GAIN) to create a significant resource for genetic researchers. He helped establish the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), providing a critical venue for precompetitive public-private collaboration to speed the transformation of basic research into patient therapeutics. This led to the launch of the FNIH-managed Accelerating Medicines Partnership® (AMP®) program—a powerful collaboration between the NIH, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and public and private organizations. He also managed two of the largest crises challenging human health via FNIH initiatives: The Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative (HEAL) and ACTIV (Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines).
As Dr. Collins shared on his work as former NIH Director, “Times came often in front of me where you could see an opportunity to go faster on a particular challenging project, but it meant getting all of the partners together, all of the people with the ideas, the resources, and the vision around the same table…There is a profound need to get together on some precompetitive aspects of science, like finding the next generation of therapeutics for diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and diabetes. [Our brainstorming] led to the founding of the Accelerating Medicines Partnerships. Every one of those AMPs is a partnership that could not have been made possible without the FNIH.”
Science has the power to cure, but no single organization can do it alone. The FNIH is grateful to have partners that share our mission to accelerate new diagnoses, therapies, and potential cures.