AbbVie has opened applications for its 2015 AbbVie CF Scholarship, a program dedicated to helping students who suffer from cystic fibrosis (CF) continue their education. Now through May 27th, undergraduate and graduate students can now apply for the scholarship, which will grant $2,500 each to 40 selected CF patients.
The AbbVie CF Scholarship, which was launched 23 years ago, honors students who suffer from the chronic disease according to their academic excellence, community involvement, creativity and capacity to be a positive role model within the CF community. For the 2015-2016 school year, the company will offer support to 40 students, who will also be able to compete for one of two additional Thriving Student Scholarships worth $23,000, which are awarded according to public votes.
“Each student who is awarded an AbbVie CF Scholarship serves as an exceptional role model of how academic excellence and community leadership can be achieved while managing a chronic disease,” explained Jim Hynd, the vice president of Endocrinology, Metabolic, and GI Care at AbbVie, in a press release. “AbbVie has rewarded the outstanding efforts of these students for the past 23 years, and we are proud to continue our investment in the futures of those living with CF.”
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Since its creation, the program has awarded over $2.5 million to support the education of students with CF, with the main purpose of reducing the burden suffered by families struggling with the disease throughout the U.S. There is no need for applicants to have ever taken or intend to take AbbVie’s products, and further criteria as well as the application form are available on the program’s website here.
The AbbVie CF Scholarship was established as part of the company’s commitment to help CF patients and their loved ones, and particularly ones pursuing higher education, as 45% of CF patients are currently older than 18 years old. The chronic condition causes the accumulation of thick and sticky mucus in the lungs and digestive system, making it a life-threatening disease that can make it difficult to conduct daily activities such as attending school.
AbbVie is focused not only on offering support to these patients in order to improve their education and help them accomplish their goals, but also to provide novel therapeutic options to increase their quality of life and life expectancy. Last December, the company initiated last December their first phase 1 study to evaluate a CFTR targeted therapy for CF, called GLPG1837 in collaboration with Galapagos. The study is assessing a novel potentiator expected to help CF patients with class III/IV mutations, such as G551D, as well as patients with the most common CF mutation, F508del.