Johnson & Johnson began responding today to the hundreds of emails MPS families and supporters sent to them on Wednesday and Thursday. If you sent an email to J&J, you can expect this email to arrive in your inbox soon, you can read it here.
However, the letter includes a number of… discrepancies. The Isaac Foundation has made a point to be transparent, so that all interested parties can know the facts, and for those who don’t know us personally, gain our trust. To maintain our transparency and hold your trust, Andrew McFadyen has also replied publicly. You can read his response here (you may notice that Andy’s letter is addressed to a Dr. Ray. While the rest of us got letters from Dr. Silber, Andy got a letter from Dr. Amrit Ray, Chief Medical Officer for J&J’s Pharmaceutical Division, Janssen).
I will continue to post updates as they come, so that if you are interested in following this issue, you can find information here. Please continue to let J&J know your thoughts as our conversations with them continue.
It is my sincere hope that J&J is now genuine in their offers to help our families. However, these offers to help did not come until threats were made, and at this point, although their words sound promising, they have not actually made any commitment to fund a trial. I do believe, due to the fact that the only contact J&J has made with The Isaac Foundation is after a lot of public pressure (ie. releasing Project One Million, The Globe & Mail article, developing the ShameonJnJ website, writing hundreds of letters all on one day to the higher up’s), that the only way J&J will decide to do the right thing, is through continued pressure. If you have a chance to read the above letters (or not), please drop back into the ShameonJnJ website and let them know what you think as the plot thickens. J&J is checking these websites regularly, so your comments make a difference!
I am really hoping that J&J acts on this quickly, but if they do not, we have a press release ready to issue next week and some other projects in the works. Stay tuned!
To J&J: Once you get on board with us, we’re good to work with and a really grateful group! You’ve been on the bottom side of the coin with us to date, just imagine in what high esteem we will hold you if you agree to fund a trial and save our kids’ lives!! It’s so much more fun doing the right thing. You’ll be a lot happier and smile more. C’mon J&J, just do it!
