During the second session of PHEN’s 2025 Prostate Cancer Disparity Summit, expert panelists from the biopharmaceutical industry came together to discuss their perspectives on prostate cancer clinical trials and treatments. Representatives from major pharmaceutical companies shared how prostate cancer awareness aligns with their organizational missions and provided recommendations for improving outreach and patient outcomes. The discussion was called What More Can We Do? Industry Benefits and Perspectives and the panelists included:

• Pfizer: Emma Andrews, PharmD, Vice President of Global Patient Advocacy
• Telix Pharmaceuticals: Ms. Elizabeth Liz Leff, Patient Advocacy Lead (Americas)
• AstraZeneca: Josefa Marie Briceno, MD, US Medical Affairs Franchise Head
• Astellas Pharma: Ms. D’Anna Holmes, Associate Director, Patient Partnerships
• Johnson & Johnson: Jennifer Phillips, PhD, Group Medical Director

Pfizer aims to deliver pivotal medicines to all patients, with equity as a core goal. They have prioritized the issue of health disparities affecting Black men. Dr. Andrews spoke on the importance of educating all patients on breakthrough medicines and disrupting inequities through prostate cancer awareness. Doing so can improve patient outcomes and early detection screening rates, she explained.

“If we increase awareness, people can get treatment earlier… we will improve patient outcomes,” Dr. Andrews said. “When we bring the science to life with patients or their families, we will improve outcomes. We will improve diagnosis rates. We will lower mortality rates and make sure that everyone gets the treatment they need.”

“Allow and empower patients to advocate for themselves. It’s good to ask for second opinions. It’s good to ask questions and challenge your doctor, and build trust in research and clinical trials,” Dr. Briceno noted a few objectives in patient outreach at AstraZeneca.

AstraZeneca prioritizes biomarker testing education and encourages patient self-advocacy with better community trust and accessibility. Johnson & Johnson is also seeking widespread biomarker testing and early detection to fight cancer. Furthermore, with the help of PHEN’s outreach, J&J clinical trials have more visibility among patients.

“Biomarker testing is critical to having the right treatment for the right patient,” said Dr. Phillips. “We’ve been doing this for breast cancer and lung cancer. Now we have to do it for prostate cancer. We have a very lofty goal at J&J, which is to eliminate cancer, but if you aren’t tested and you don’t get the right treatment, we can’t do that.”

Astellas Pharma’s goal is to focus on localized engagement and educating younger generations, explained Ms. Holmes. She emphasized the importance of normalizing prostate health conversations and bringing community voices into clinical trial design. Telix Pharmaceuticals aims to help prostate cancer patients live longer lives at higher quality, explained Ms. Leff. The company’s focus is to work with advocacy organizations to build trusted community relationships, focus on survivor and caregiver stories, and expand screening opportunities to reach more people and eliminate the disease.

“Our goal, of course, is to help people with prostate cancer,” explained Ms. Leff during the panel discussion. “We want them to survive, live longer, and have better lives. We’re doing that currently with our targeted radio pharmaceuticals. We have our PSMA PET imaging scan and our targeted radiotherapy.”

“The more people know about these innovations and get screened earlier and know that they have a voice in the conversation, the better [they] take control of their care and have better outcomes,” she continued. “Telix is all about the patient.”