AstraZeneca donates $1.1 million to AKF’s COVID-19 emergency fund
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Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has donated $1.1 million to the American Kidney Fund’s coronavirus emergency relief program, allowing for all patients currently on the waitlist to receive financial assistance.
The program, launched in March to provide monetary grants to low-income patients on dialysis or those who have undergone kidney transplantation, saw its funds quickly depleted, causing numerous corporations to make donations. Despite this support, the AKF was unable to provide assistance to increasing numbers of applicants, with more than 9,000 individuals applying for emergency assistance within 2 months, according to a press release.
“AstraZeneca’s donation to the Coronavirus Emergency Fund is an act of profound generosity that will allow us to help 4,400 kidney patients who are facing incredibly difficult economic circumstances in the middle of this public health emergency,” LaVarne Burton, AKF president and CEO, said in the release. “The need is so great among low-income dialysis and recent transplant patients and we continue to receive applications daily, so we are deeply grateful to AstraZeneca for stepping forward to enable us to help so many patients.”
The release noted that 100% of AstraZeneca’s donation will go directly to patients for support with transportation, food and medications, as the AKF is covering the cost of grant processing and check distribution.
“As a health care organization, we are highly committed to providing innovative solutions for patients and believe that it’s our responsibility to support important causes like the American Kidney Fund’s Coronavirus Emergency Fund,” Tarek Rabah, vice president of U.S. renal-cardio at AstraZeneca, said. “This national health emergency has brought significant challenge to the chronic kidney disease community and created further complexities in their daily lives. We commend AKF for establishing the Coronavirus Emergency Fund to provide a solution directly to patients and hope that our contribution can help to relieve some of their burden.”