Life at Lilly

Last week, our CEO, John Lechleiter, wrote about the scourge that is Alzheimer's disease in Forbes. The blog speaks for itself, but there are a few important data points worth noting:

• Dementia now costs the U.S. alone up to $215 billion a year in medical care and other costs.
• According to the Alzheimer's Association, more than 5 million Americans are affected by Alzheimer's. That includes 1 of every 8 Americans 65 and older.
• By 2050, 16 million Americans likely will have Alzheimer's, and costs in the U.S. could surpass $1 trillion.

The fact that Alzheimer's is an emerging health crisis is no big surprise...

Two years ago, Lilly and Disney Publishing Worldwide joined forces on a program that provides resources to families of children with diabetes. 

Now, the program is going global.

Lilly and Disney Publishing Worldwide announced today that the program is being expanded to 18 more countries, with books being translated and made available for children at various stages of diabetes...

Chuck Pagano can coach some football.  We learned today that he can also bring a group of pharmaceutical employees to the verge of tears with his messages of inspiration.

As a Colts season-ticket holder, it was a thrill to see the Indianapolis head coach on stage talking to colleagues and peers from around the country on the final day of PhRMA's annual meeting. It was an even bigger thrill to see him looking so well.  The story, in case you haven't heard, is a fascinating one.  Pagano was in his first year as coach of the Colts when he was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia on September 26 last year.  Over the course of three months, he underwent aggressive treatment with chemotherapy.  By December 30, he was back on the field for his team's final game of the regular season against the Houston Texans.

Pagano was invited to speak by PhRMA to provide inspiration and encouragement to the people who are working to discover life-saving medicines -- and he made some important analogies between football and medical innovation...

Medical innovation is front and center this week in San Diego.  And the numbers -- for patients and the industry alike -- are looking quite good.

John Lechleiter, Lilly's CEO, threw out some important developments earlier today when he opened the annual meeting of PhRMA, the industry's trade association. As chairman of PhRMA over the last 12 months, John has had a bird's eye view of some terrific developments in the world of medical innovation. For instance...

LillyPad has been around for roughly 2 1/2 years. Nearly 14,000 followers later, we feel like we've contributed to the public policy conversation on Capitol Hill and in states across the U.S.

Starting Wednesday, we began building upon our LillyPad franchise with LillyPad_Media -- a platform for journalists to follow the news and work of our corporate communications team via Twitter and Facebook (with a few other tools on the horizon). Journalists are extremely active on digital media -- so what better way to connect with them than jumping a little deeper into their space? (And for media who don't tweet and post, our phones and email accounts are very much alive and well)...