FCAA Member Spotlight: Gilead Sciences, Inc.

By Robert Sefer July 6, 2016

Earlier this month Gilead Sciences was recognized as the largest corporate cash donor in 2015 (at $447 million) and the second largest in overall giving (cash and in-kind donations), according to a new study by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Also the 2ndlargest private funder of HIV/AIDS, FCAA reached out to Korab Zuka, Director of Corporate Contributions at Gilead (and FCAA Board Member), to learn more about this news, as well as Gilead’s current funding priorities.

1. What are current priorities for Gilead’s philanthropic giving?

Gilead works to advance the care of patients suffering from life-threatening diseases, including in regions where access to modern medicine is limited or does not yet exist.  Our goal with philanthropic giving is to improve the well-being of patient communities across our therapeutic areas, lessening the impact of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. We accomplish this by working with our grantee partners: patient advocates, nonprofits and healthcare professionals that manage critically important programs around the world. Last year, we gave nearly $500M to almost 2,000 of these organizations according to project sustainability and alignment with four key priorities:

  • Improving health access, or enabling access to care that achieves the best health outcomes
  • Reducing disparities, or eliminating the barriers to healthcare encountered by underserved populations
  • Advancing education, or working to improve disease awareness among patients and healthcare professionals
  •  Supporting local communities, or promoting improvements to the local areas in which Gilead operates.

The areas with the highest level of support were HIV/AIDS, HCV, and programs that educate about Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) as part of a comprehensive HIV prevention strategy.

2. You have shared that your grants program is largely reactive. What issues/populations have most impacted Gilead’s giving in recent years?

Through our partnerships with grantees, we’ve been able to directly observe the important work being done on behalf of patient communities and learn more about urgent needs.  Some of the recent funding opportunity announcements that Gilead has published include programs that address issues and populations within:

  •  Hepatitis C – We understand the impact Hepatitis C exerts on individuals and communities.  As a result, Gilead is looking to support organizations focused on addressing the challenges associated with diagnosing individuals with hepatitis C and overcoming personal and systemic barriers to accessing care.
  • HIV & Aging – We also recognize the challenges of HIV treatment on an aging HIV-positive population and supports organizations focused on understanding the challenges of individuals aged 50 years and older with chronic HIV, including the accumulated risk of comorbidities and the impact of long-term infection and treatment.
  • HIV CURE – Gilead is funding academic institutions, nonprofit organizations and community groups engaged in work related to seeking a cure for HIV. The program funds translational research, efficacy studies, institutional funding, and community group programs that seek to understand concerns related to HIV cure clinical research.
  • PrEP – Prevention is an important strategy for reducing HIV rates, and Gilead has created a Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Grants Program to help reduce the number of new infections every year. Through the program, Gilead supports community organizations to help educate their members about PrEP’s role as part of a comprehensive HIV prevention plan. In 2015, our PrEP Grants program grew by 379 percent, giving more than $11 million to 101 U.S. based nonprofit organizations — up from $2.3 million given to 19 nonprofits in 2014.

3. Can you share a few examples of recent HIV-related grants?

Prevention, advocacy, treatment and research in the HIV community continues to be an important priority for Gilead’s corporate contributions. We’re proud to work with partners who are driving tangible, transformative impact, such as:

  • BASIC: One example of a recent grant is Gilead’s support of BASIC in Northwest Florida, an integrated HIV/Substance Abuse prevention program that reaches African American youth. Through their ‘Respect, Awareness, Prevention’ initiative, BASIC helps to educate, empower and equip these young people to make healthy life choices – including getting tested for HIV.
  • NBJC: Elsewhere, we’ve recently supported the National Black Justice Coalition’s tour of Historically Black College and Universities, an innovative program that aims to educate students, administrators and healthcare providers at HBCUs about using PrEP as part of a comprehensive HIV prevention strategy on their campuses.
  • NAM Publications: In Europe, we support the National AIDS Manual (NAM) and their European HIV Prevention Network that provides accurate, up-to-date information about HIV prevention and treatment. The Network shares information in briefing sheets and a monthly newsletter on topics such as PrEP, post-exposure prophylaxis and mother-to-child transmission. The newsletter is produced in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian, and now reaches about more than 1,400 subscribers.

4. A recent Chronicle of Philanthropy survey recognized you as the largest corporate cash donor in 2015.  How is giving embedded within Gilead, and why is it so critical to the response to HIV/AIDS?

Through the Corporate Grants program, Gilead supports the efforts of community-based organizations, public health entities and similar umbrella organizations to educate their constituents and healthcare providers. Gilead’s corporate contributions function is separate from the company’s commercial operations, but works to align our giving in areas where our expertise is the greatest. This means we primarily provide grants to organizations working within our therapeutic areas, including HIV.

HIV/AIDS remains one of the world’s foremost health challenges, creating a continued need for philanthropic support. Our corporate giving program helps address the HIV epidemic on all fronts, including testing and linkage to care, enabling access to medicines, reducing disparities in the quality of healthcare and educating healthcare professionals on the latest advances in HIV therapies.

Prevention is also critical for reducing HIV rates. That’s why Gilead provides grants and support to community organizations, demonstration projects and research efforts that raise awareness about PrEP among at-risk populations.

5. What can we expect for Gilead’s giving in 2015 and beyond?

While all of us at Gilead focus on scientific discovery, we also understand it takes more than science to improve people’s health and quality of life. That’s why we work hard to build strong, lasting relationships with healthcare providers, patients, caregivers and advocates in communities around the world through our charitable giving. These grantees and partners are the ones who inspire us to do what we do and remind us that there is still so much more to be done.

As we continue to evolve our corporate contributions program, we’re focusing on improving sophistication in our ability to track and report on project impact. We also plan to continue participating in community dialogues and gatherings of key opinion leaders and nonprofit advocates that will help further shape our understanding of areas of need.

6. Can you speak to the importance of cash donations? Why is this unique and critical to the response?

Charitable cash donations are critical to the response and programming of community based organizations because, in many cases, these groups rely on outside funding to sustain the programs and services they are founded to deliver.  As we continue to work with and better understand the programs of our grantee partners, we’ve learned about the importance of long-term funding for specific initiatives. Gilead’s charitable cash donations also help enable organizations to secure additional funding from other groups, having demonstrated commitment from a major funder.

Learn more about Gilead’s work at: http://www.gilead.com/responsibility/corporate-contributions