I want to share that I am hopeful that we have made progress with Bayer Healthcare and the issues I have written about surrounding the newly approved treatment for men with castrate resistant prostate cancer, Xofigo.

I have shared that they failed to support the early access trials because of what they claimed were supply problems. Now that they have been approved by the FDA these supply issues could become worse with the increase in demand for the drug.

I have also become aware of the lack of understanding by clinicians and survivors that this treatment is meant to be used along side of other treatments, not in a sequence.

The good news is that Bayer Healthcare, due to the hard work of Jan Manarite (PCRI), has agreed to starting to speaking with the advocates of the prostate cancer community about these issues and others surrounding this new treatment. They have organized a conference call for tomorrow, Friday where I am hopeful that a dialogue can start.

Our goal is simple; we want to hear solutions to the problems. We want to hear what Bayer has done to ameliorate problems and specifically what they are going to do tomorrow to get a head of the curve.

Bayer Healthcare is a great company, but it needs to understand that it has to respond to the survivor community. Bayer baby aspirin is a trusted brand, now they need to find ways of fostering trust form the adult prostate cancer community. This is a good first step, I thank Bayer for recognizing the problem and putting a step forward in building the much needed trust.

Joel T Nowak, M.A., M.S.W.