Biomedical Trailblazer to Receive National Award for Advancing Health through Advocacy

WASHINGTON, DC – April 7, 2010 – Genetic Alliance will present the Art of Advocacy Award to Greg Simon at the Awards Dinner during the 2010 Genetic Alliance Annual Conference in recognition of his past and continued commitment to advancing policies that improve health care and accelerate the delivery of lifesaving medicine to people worldwide.

Simon currently serves as Senior Vice President for Worldwide Policy at Pfizer Inc, where he leads a global team of professionals in worldwide government policy, science policy, economic policy, and international policy.

“I am very excited to work with Greg as he brings advocacy to a new level inside Pfizer,” said Sharon Terry, president and chief executive officer of Genetic Alliance. “He will redefine what it means to be an executive in a pharmaceutical company by applying his passion and visionary perspective to the current healthcare challenges we face.”

Simon arrived at Pfizer after a distinguished career as a Senior Congressional staff member in the House and Senate; the Chief Domestic Policy Advisor to Vice President Al Gore; a successful policy consultant; and most recently, the first president of FasterCures, an ‘action tank’ dedicated to shortening the time it takes to find cures, improved treatments, and effective prevention of the most deadly and destructive diseases.

In 2008 the journal Nature Medicine named Simon as one of “Ten People to Watch” in healthcare policy, and in January 2010 Simon was named a Man of the Month by the Disruptive Women in Health Care blog. Pfizer chairman and chief executive officer Jeff Kindler said, "Greg shares our commitment to good health and great science, and to shaping policies that unleash the power of innovation so that more people can gain greater access to safe and effective new treatments.”

This is exemplified by the record of his tenure as Chief Domestic Policy Advisor to Vice President Al Gore from 1993 to 1997. In that position, he oversaw a number of initiatives, including the programs of the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Human Genome Project, and the development of the regulatory framework for biotechnology products.

The Awards Dinner takes place on July 17, 2010, during the Genetic Alliance Annual Conference, Advancing Novel Partnerships. Genetic Alliance will also honor Art of Listening, Art of Reporting, and Art of Novel Partnership awardees. For more information and registration for the conference and/or the awards dinner, go to http://www.geneticalliance.org/conference2010.

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About Genetic Alliance
Genetic Alliance transforms health through genetics, promoting an environment of openness centered on the health of individuals, families, and communities. Genetic Alliance brings together diverse stakeholders that create novel partnerships in advocacy; integrates individual, family, and community perspectives to improve health systems; and revolutionizes access to information to enable translation of research into services and individualized decision making. For more information about Genetic Alliance, visit http://www.geneticalliance.org.