Mer­ck Foun­da­tion de­buts $20M health eq­ui­ty fund fo­cused on can­cer care

Health in­equity in the US in­creas­ing­ly drew at­ten­tion through the pan­dem­ic, with long-ex­ist­ing dis­par­i­ties ex­ac­er­bat­ed — and spurring fin,an­cial sup­port and promis­es of help from phar­ma com­pa­nies. Now the Mer­ck Foun­da­tion is tak­ing a step fur­ther with a new fund to fo­cus eq­ui­ty ef­forts specif­i­cal­ly on can­cer care.

The goal of the $20 mil­lion Al­liance for Eq­ui­ty in Can­cer Care, which de­buted on Thurs­day, is to go be­yond clin­i­cal in­ter­ven­tions in can­cer and dri­ve much-need­ed sur­round­ing sup­port for un­der­served peo­ple and com­mu­ni­ties. The ini­tia­tive in­cludes grants to sev­en can­cer cen­ters, hos­pi­tals and re­searchers across the coun­try, in­clud­ing Boston Med­ical Cen­ter, Memo­r­i­al Sloan Ket­ter­ing Can­cer Cen­ter in New York, Mary Bird Perkins Can­cer Cen­ter in Ba­ton Rouge, LA, and the AS­CO Foun­da­tion’s Con­quer Can­cer in Mon­tana.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER