<\/p>\n
Read the full story below or on the BioSpace Website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n In what has become an all-too-common story in America, a lone gunman opened\u00a0fire<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>at a Thousand Oaks, Calif. bar called Borderline Bar and Grill. It is a country-western dance bar that was offering College Night.<\/p>\n The shooter,\u00a0David Long<\/strong>, 28, killed 13 people, including a sheriff\u2019s sergeant. Long, an honorably-discharged former U.S. marine, used a legally-purchased Glock 21 .45-caliber handgun. Long apparently shot himself after his rampage.<\/p>\n Die\u00a0Conrad N. Hilton Stiftung\u00a0<\/strong>und\u00a0Amgen<\/a><\/strong>, which has headquarters in Thousand Oaks,\u00a0established<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0die\u00a0Fonds f\u00fcr die Opfer des Conejo-Tals<\/strong>. The Hilton Foundation donated $100,000 and Amgen donated $250,000. The fund will be administered through the\u00a0Ventura County Gemeinschaftsstiftung<\/a><\/strong>. Officials indicate that 100 percent of the funds will go to help victims\u2019 families. The Foundation is calling for additional donations.<\/p>\n And on November 12, the\u00a0Amgen Stiftung\u00a0<\/strong>pledged<\/a>\u00a0another $500,000 to support the victims of the local wildfires, which as of this writing are blazing out of control throughout the area. \u201cOur community has endured significant tragedy with the recent senseless nightclub shooting, as well as another series of wildfires that have resulted in devastating damage and impact to our staff,\u201d stated\u00a0Cynthia M. Patton,\u00a0<\/strong>chief compliance officer at Amgen and chair of the Amgen Foundation Board of Directors. \u201cWe are committed to assisting in relief and support efforts and applaud the firefighters and first responders who are working tirelessly to protect and serve our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n The Foundation will pick non-profit organizations to give the money to based on relief effort needs.<\/p>\n Amgen is not the only biopharma company to step up to crises and catastrophes. Chicago-based\u00a0AbbVie<\/a>\u00a0reported<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0earlier this year that it had made a one-time charitable donation of approximately $350 million to specific not-for-profit organizations in the U.S., including rebuilding efforts for Puerto Rico after Hurricanes Irma and Maria devasted the island in 2017.<\/p>\n AbbVie has two facilities in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico, about 70 miles from the capital, San Juan.<\/p>\n Later in the year, in May, AbbVie\u00a0donated<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>$100 million to\u00a0Direktes Relief\u00a0<\/strong>und\u00a0Habitat for Humanity International<\/strong>, to strengthen access to health care and housing in Puerto Rico. It was an extension of more than $4 million AbbVie provided after the hurricanes in 2017.<\/p>\n \u201cWith this important contribution today by AbbVie\u2014with aid that goes directly to health and housing, two priorities in our Administration,\u201d stated Puerto Rico\u2019s Governor\u00a0Ricardo Rossello\u00a0<\/strong>in May, \u201cthe company proves to be an example of what a private sector committed to the community should be. After the hurricanes passed through our region, AbbVie collaborated with us in the reconstruction of the Island. After 50 years in Puerto Rico, we are grateful that they continue to be available as a workplace for the Puerto Rican working class.\u201d<\/p>\n Unfortunately, Amgen is no stranger to helping out with disasters. In December 2017, after the Thomas Fire, the first of four fires that\u00a0burned<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>at least 50,000 acres and destroyed hundreds of buildings, the\u00a0Amgen Foundation\u00a0donated<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0$500,000 to support victims of the wildfires.<\/p>\n These fires directly affected Amgen, which was forced to evacuate some of its staffers from their facilities in the area.<\/p>\n In 2016,\u00a0Steve Stirling,\u00a0<\/strong>president and chief executive officer of\u00a0MAP International<\/strong>, noted that part of the nongovernmental organization\u2019s success was because of its relationships with pharmaceutical companies like\u00a0Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies<\/a>,\u00a0Abbott<\/a>, AbbVie\u00a0<\/strong>und\u00a0Merck & Co<\/a><\/strong>. He noted that in 2014, about 15 percent of nonprofit charitable donations came from company foundations and 5 percent came from corporations. \u201cPharmaceutical companies are one of the top donors in the category of in-kind gifts,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n MAP International is a global health and relief organization. It delivers medicines, medical supplies and health services globally in response to man-made and natural disasters, and to people with neglected tropical diseases and in severe poverty.<\/p>\n In 2015, Stirling noted, pharmaceutical companies donated $538 million in medicines and medical supplies to MAP, and it was continuing to grow. In March and April of 2016, MAP provided more than $60 million in medicines and medical supplies to 25 countries.<\/p>\n \u201cMost nonprofits are dependent at some level on corporate donations to meet their goals,\u201d Stirling wrote. \u201cIn our case, we need gifts in kind for medical product supplies, but we also need monetary donations to fund the actual transport and delivery. We\u2019ve grown very efficient in that process over the years, to the point where today a $1 donation allows us to provide $60 worth of essential medicines and medical supplies.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5788,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-coverage"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}