Merck, Pfizer among pharmas commemorating World Cancer Day ...

In 2000, the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) named Feb. 4 World Cancer Day, with a goal of raising awareness of cancer and encouraging efforts to prevent and treat its various forms.

A quarter-century later, the initiative is still going strong, with biopharma organizations joining countless other companies and individuals in the battle against what the UICC describes as “the global cancer epidemic.” According to the World Cancer Day website, its “visionary”-level long-term sponsors include AbbVie, Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck and Roche, while the next tier of supporters include Amgen, Genmab, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Ono Pharmaceutical and Sanofi.

Those and many other cancer drugmakers commemorated this year’s World Cancer Day with awareness pushes and social media posts highlighting their work to develop treatments.

Merck’s Canadian branch, for example, announced Tuesday the launch of a new campaign dubbed “Listen Close” and aimed at improving early detection of lung cancer. In addition to educational resources about the disease, the campaign website also features a self-assessment tool to help visitors identify their risk factors and prepare for further conversations with a doctor. Plus, a dedicated phone line will offer inspiring stories from lung cancer patients to all who dial in.

Frequent pharma partner the American Lung Association launched a lung cancer awareness push of its own on World Cancer Day: The “If Your Lungs Could Talk” public service announcements specifically target current and former smokers, urging them to undergo potentially life-saving screenings.

Many of the pharmas’ social media posts played into the theme of the latest World Cancer Day campaign, “United by Unique,” which seeks to celebrate the personal nature of each cancer diagnosis and will last from 2025 through 2027.

Both AstraZeneca and GSK posted videos on Instagram highlighting the stories of individual cancer patients and their own efforts to better target disease. Amgen also put the spotlight on one patient, a 12-year-old who was diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia at age 8, with a specific focus on honoring “every childhood cancer warrior.”

Pfizer and Boehringer Ingelheim, meanwhile, participated in this year’s “Upside Down Challenge,” which asks social media users to invert their photos and videos and share in the caption how cancer “turned [their] world upside down.” Pfizer also shared a trio of its own employees’ experiences with cancer in a longer post on its website.

Also chiming in were Roche, Merck and AbbVie, all of which took to social media to describe their work to “transform scientific potential into real impact,” as Merck put it. Both Roche and Merck mentioned the importance of collaboration in cancer research in their posts while AbbVie took the opportunity to explain how using antibody-drug conjugates and immunotherapies to target solid tumors can make cancer treatments more precise.