Celebrating PRIDE in biopharmaceutical science

Today marks the beginning of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month and we are proud to join with our member companies in celebrating our support for the LGBT community. We recognize that inclusion and diversity fuels collaboration, trust to make the next leap into biomedical research and fosters an openness to tackling old problems with new ideas.

For the biopharmaceutical industry employees and the patients we seek to help, consideration of each person’s unique contributions fuel the work we do day in and day out.

Below are just some of the initiatives being led by our members to celebrate and advance diversity in biopharmaceutical science:

• Astellas has created an employee resource group called Together As One (TAO). TAO’s mission is to foster an inclusive and supportive work environment that allows members of Astellas’ LGBTQA community to be their whole selves at work, embodying the spirit of One Astellas.

• Biogen’s original “Out at Work” campaign encourages its employees to be out and open in the workplace to foster collaboration, communication and career growth. Biogen’s view of diversity and inclusion expands to their patients, researchers, medical teams and supply chain. 

• Eli Lilly and Company’s corporate and Lilly Field PRIDE created a reverse mentoring program that matches senior leaders with LGBT employees as mentors. This helps educate the leaders about LGBT issues in the workplace.

• Pfizer established a Colleague Resource Group to help drive the company’s mission and values to position Pfizer among the world’s leading companies for LGBT equality and inclusion. Pfizer also supports LGBT teens and senior citizens through programs like a youth mentoring program with Harvey Milk High School, a NYC public school, and through Pfizer’s healthy aging campaign—Get Old—in partnership with SAGE to support the health care challenges faced by aging LGBT people.

And in honor of Pride Month, PhRMA is a proud sponsor of the DC Front Runners Pride Run on June 9^th benefiting the Team DC Student-Athlete Scholarship and SMYAL (Supporting and Mentoring Youth Advocates and Leaders). 

PhRMA and our member companies are proud to celebrate our LGBT colleagues and patients and their important contributions to the drug development process.