After a Successful Career with Oncology Pharmaceutical Companies, Jill DeSimone is Making Waves in the Fight Against Cancer
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb. 15, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Swim Across America, a national nonprofit dedicated to providing grants for cancer research and patient programs and raising funds through swimming events, is pleased to announce that Jill DeSimone, a global pharmaceutical executive, has been appointed to the Swim Across America Board of Directors. Jill's career included championing excellence in patient care for serious diseases, while igniting scalable growth and agility in the healthcare marketplace. She held positions of executive leadership for more than 30 years, culminating in eight years as president of Oncology for Merck.
"One of my greatest joys has been volunteering and encouraging many of my colleagues and friends to volunteer with Swim Across America," says Jill DeSimone. "I'm thrilled to continue my support with the Board of Directors and its mission of cancer research, detection, education, and giving hope to families that are affected by cancer."
"Jill has been supporting Swim Across America for many years," commented Pam Ryan, Swim Across America board chair. "She's been to many of the communities and hospitals that our grants fund. She has passion, relationships, and valuable leadership experience that is going to advance our mission and ability to help people."
Ms. DeSimone was most recently president of U.S. Oncology at Merck & Co., Inc., where she built the company's oncology division, growing it to over a $9 billion business in just eight years. She led three key product launches, and more than 45 indication launches, including Keytruda®, of which Swim Across America played a major role in funding the research and clinical trials. Prior to joining Merck, she served as senior vice president of Global Women's Health at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., from 2012 to 2014. Prior to her time at Teva, she served in several roles of increasing responsibility at Bristol Myers Squibb from 1980 to 2012, including senior vice president of U.S. Oncology & Commercial from 2010 to 2012 and senior vice president of U.S. Virology/HIV from 2006 to 2010.
Swim Across America was founded in 1987 with its first open water charity swim in Long Island Sound. The non-profit has grown to 24-communities with charity swims and each year, thousands of survivors and Olympians participate to raise funds for innovative cancer research, detection and patient programs.
Swim Across America's funding of the research and clinical trials for patients helped contribute to four FDA approved life-saving immunotherapy cancer treatments: Yervoy, Opdivo, Tecentriq and Keytruda. Swim Across America is also a grant funder of the successful clinical trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering that was published in The New England Journal of Medicine and showed a 100 percent success rate in treating patients in a phase 2 clinical trial for advanced rectal cancer with dostarlimab, an immunotherapy treatment produced by GlaxoSmithKline. Swim Across America awards grant to more than 60 projects each year and there are ten named Swim Across America Labs at major institutions including: Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, John Hopkins Medicine Baltimore, Rush University Medical Center Chicago, Baylor Scott & White Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center in Dallas, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center New York, Infusion Center at Nantucket Cottage Hospital, UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland and San Francisco, the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, The Swim Across America Pediatric Research Lab at Columbia University Medical Center New York, and at Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine.
Swim Across America, Inc. (SAA) is dedicated to raising money and awareness for cancer research, prevention, and treatment through swimming-related events. With the help of hundreds of volunteers nationwide and past and current Olympians, Swim Across America is helping find a cure for cancer through athleticism, community outreach and direct service. To learn more visit swimacrossamerica.org or follow on Facebook @SwimAcrossAmerica or on Instagram or Twitter @SAASwim.
Media Contact
Jenifer Howard, Swim Across America, 1 203-273-4246, jhoward@jhowardpr.com, https://www.swimacrossamerica.org
SOURCE Swim Across America
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