Bob Wright established The Suzanne Wright Foundation in November 2016, in honor of his wife Suzanne, to drive urgency and action in the fight against pancreatic cancer.
The Suzanne Wright Foundation advocates for HARPA, the Health Advanced Research Projects Agency, to drive innovation in biomedical research.
Despite medical innovation over the last century, millions of Americans with deadly and debilitating conditions have seen no progress….
There are more than 9,000 known diseases, yet there are approved treatments for only 500.
Two out of five Americans have a disease with no cure.
HARPA would leverage federal research assets and private sector tools to develop capabilities for diseases, like pancreatic cancer, that have not benefited from the current system.
WATCH FULL“The idea is to get projects completed, and then make them useful quickly. That’s a very different thing. That’s not what’s done today inside of health and human services. There’s nothing like that.”
”Why not marry NIH’s talents and assets to the private sector assets and then invite people who have good ideas to come in so you can move the process.”
”It’s critical to create HARPA, because we have got to take advantage of all that has been accomplished to date and turn them into something tangible, such as a cure, or a treatment, and we have to do it as fast as possible.”
”Somebody’s got to de-risk it so that these big companies, A, have a high probability that it’ll work, and B, it’s not going to take ten years to find out. That’s what HARPA ought to be doing.”
“90% of what Pharma takes out into that long pathway to bedside fails. And so all the capital that they put into clinical trials, into applied research, is a down the drain. So this whole pathway from bench to bedside is not being treated carefully.”
“I see HARPA helping us coordinate an effort amongst multiple people, institutions, and industry groups to come up with a plan, and to run it effectively together.”
“If HARPA existed today, I would instantly develop the technology to understand the prescribing practices of every doctor in this country who prescribes opioids, and be able to report on that on a quarterly basis with only a 30 day lag, so we can immediately spot which prescribers in this country are prescribing outside of CDC guidelines.”
“Only an entity like HARPA could bring together the biomedical and the engineer communities to fully exploit revolutions like the one currently occurring in nanotechnology.”
“HARPA wants to be time-limited. Wants answers soon. Not in the future. Soon. Smaller companies might be more nimble and able to streamline things better.”
“We’ve got 9,000 human diseases. We have interventions for maybe 500 of these diseases. And the overwhelming majority of the other ones there are zero people working on treatments for them… Until we start to go directly at that problem we’re not going to get there.”
“What really excites me about HARPA is it’s a really innovative approach that looks at today’s reality and tomorrow’s promise.”
“The idea is to get projects completed, and then make them useful quickly. That’s a very different thing. That’s not what’s done today inside of health and human services. There’s nothing like that.”
”Why not marry NIH’s talents and assets to the private sector assets and then invite people who have good ideas to come in so you can move the process.”
”It’s critical to create HARPA, because we have got to take advantage of all that has been accomplished to date and turn them into something tangible, such as a cure, or a treatment, and we have to do it as fast as possible.”
”Somebody’s got to de-risk it so that these big companies, A, have a high probability that it’ll work, and B, it’s not going to take ten years to find out. That’s what HARPA ought to be doing.”
“90% of what Pharma takes out into that long pathway to bedside fails. And so all the capital that they put into clinical trials, into applied research, is a down the drain. So this whole pathway from bench to bedside is not being treated carefully.”
“I see HARPA helping us coordinate an effort amongst multiple people, institutions, and industry groups to come up with a plan, and to run it effectively together.”
“If HARPA existed today, I would instantly develop the technology to understand the prescribing practices of every doctor in this country who prescribes opioids, and be able to report on that on a quarterly basis with only a 30 day lag, so we can immediately spot which prescribers in this country are prescribing outside of CDC guidelines.”
“Only an entity like HARPA could bring together the biomedical and the engineer communities to fully exploit revolutions like the one currently occurring in nanotechnology.”
“HARPA wants to be time-limited. Wants answers soon. Not in the future. Soon. Smaller companies might be more nimble and able to streamline things better.”
“We’ve got 9,000 human diseases. We have interventions for maybe 500 of these diseases. And the overwhelming majority of the other ones there are zero people working on treatments for them… Until we start to go directly at that problem we’re not going to get there.”
“What really excites me about HARPA is it’s a really innovative approach that looks at today’s reality and tomorrow’s promise.”
Bob Wright established the Suzanne Wright Foundation in honor of his wife Suzanne, who died from pancreatic cancer in 2016. 91% of patients die from this disease- most within the first year of diagnosis. CodePurple is a Suzanne Wright Foundation initiative to drive urgency and action in the fight against pancreatic cancer. The improvement in survival rates for breast, colon, prostate and other cancers demonstrates how the power of advocacy and focused funding can drive research and save lives. Pancreatic cancer is an emergency that requires an innovative, focused approach. Bob Wright and the Suzanne Wright Foundation have proposed the federal initiative HARPA, a Health Advanced Research Projects Agency, to build life-saving capabilities for diseases that have not benefited from the current system.
READ MORE ABOUT USDecember 18, 2019
Congress passed the 21st Century Cures Act late in 2016. The legislation is designed to help accelerate medical product development and bring innovations and advances to patients who need them faster and more efficiently.
HARPA would deliver on that promise. The Suzanne Wright Foundation will continue to advocate for its creation. The research is sitting on shelves and HARPA will drive innovations that will save lives NOW! #RoadToHARPA
June 25, 2018
A segment from “The Patients Are Waiting: How HARPA Will Change Lives Now”
December 17, 2019
The NIH is in the business of understanding the biology of disease. They do not develop detection tests and they don’t cure disease.
Despite the lack of any progress with pancreatic cancer, they continue to chug along with the same approach. Any other business with the same failing results for 50 years would be forced to shut down or start over.
Lessons from business and years of autism work taught Bob Wright the best way THROUGH is AROUND. The question with this situation was, who else needed a new approach??
Our pancreatic cancer army would never be large enough to influence the change we need. ALS, Alzheimer’s, and glioblastoma have no early detection tests or curative treatments, either.
It was time to Demand A New Approach for the many conditions that do not benefit from the slow, conservative, bureaucratic status quo research model. #RoadToHARPA
The Suzanne Wright Foundation is dedicated to driving urgency and action in the fight against pancreatic cancer—the most deadly of all major cancers. 91% of patients die. This is an emergency. This is #CodePurple.
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Checks should be made payable to “The Suzanne Wright Foundation” and mailed to:
THE SUZANNE WRIGHT FOUNDATION
610 FIFTH AVENUE, SUITE 605
NEW YORK, NY 10020
Since July 29, 2016, when Suzanne Wright passed away
77,000
people have died from pancreatic cancer.
The Suzanne Wright Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. All gifts are deductible per IRS regulations.