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.
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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 USNovember 20, 2019
Bob Wright’s odyssey with the federal research bureaucracy began fifteen years ago with autism. Autism diagnoses were skyrocketing, with no scientific explanation. Families, including his, were searching for answers.
There was no urgency to address the causes, treatments and supports needed. No national strategy to manage the economic and emotional cost to families across the country. It was his first window into the mindset of the government health agencies. What was the rush?? #RoadToHARPA
June 25, 2018
A segment from “The Patients Are Waiting: How HARPA Will Change Lives Now”
November 19, 2019
November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month. Each day, 151 people are diagnosed with this deadly disease. The survival rate has not improved in 50 years. It is time for action.
In 2016, Suzanne Wright was one of the 46,000 people who died of pancreatic cancer that year, just nine months after her diagnosis. @BobWrightNBC established this Foundation to drive urgency and action in the fight to develop an early detection test.
There is no engine in the federal research system to do this now. HARPA is a revolutionary apparatus that would develop capabilities to improve and save lives now. It is modeled after DARPA, the gold standard for innovation, which is what this disease needs!
Millions of patients are waiting. This is why we will never stop fighting. This month, we will be sharing a social media thread that details Bob Wright’s history of breaking down institutional barriers and the road to establishing HARPA. Follow along here or on social media at #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.
Pay with a credit card or a PayPal account.
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
