Originally published at stories.abbvie.com. AbbVie ranked No. 19 on The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list in 2020.
AbbVie’s people, partners and patients help tell the stories of a memorable year. In a year like no other, the voices of our people, partners and patients shone through. As we reflect on 2020 and look forward to a new year, we’d like to highlight some of the stories that inspired us.
The Passion of our People
When COVID-19 struck, AbbVie’s scientists and R&D team sprang into action, partnering with leading academic institutions to better understand this pandemic and the next one, working all hours, poring over the latest scientific literature as it was published. At the same time, our operations team defined agility by making sure our millions of patients continued to receive the medicine they need and worked hard to prevent any interruption in our production.
And through the year, our diverse employees from around the globe stood united to support, inspire and champion each other. From our LGBTQ+ community helping to foster a diverse and inclusive environment to our AbbVie’s working moms and dads of the year finding innovative ways to strike a work-life balance, our employees pulled together.
“The world has never seen a crisis of this magnitude and people are depending on science to answer the call,” said Tom Hudson, M.D., AbbVie’s senior vice president, R&D, chief scientific officer. “AbbVie’s scientists understand the stakes and are using our decades of expertise to help.”
Nonprofit Partner Voices Tell Stories of Impact
The COVID-19 pandemic hit nonprofits hard, and that’s why AbbVie made a $35 million commitment to bring relief to the hardest-hit communities around the globe.
Feeding America illustrates how an AbbVie donation helps them run a network of 200 food banks that feed more than 40 million people per year. International Medical Corp has opened 20 field hospitals serving COVID-19 patients with help from AbbVie funding, with the impact outlined in a video here. A total of 26 organizations, including UNICEF and Boston Medical Center who share their stories here, are boosting community resilience with $5 million in AbbVie funding.
The Power of the Patient
The pandemic has been particularly hard for people living with immunological diseases like Crohn’s or those dealing with chronic migraine. That’s why patient advocates and patient advocacy groups have worked especially hard to foster a sense of community during the pandemic by sharing their stories and their ways of staying healthy in the era of COVID-19.
In 2020, AbbVie also saw the continued emergence of people speaking out who have often misunderstood dermatological diseases such as hidradenitis suppurativa and atopic dermatitis. Patients and their caregivers told stories of having open conversations with their doctors, raising awareness of their illnesses, reducing stigmas and pushing for continued research.
