Rob Miani joined the MMRF team as Chief Financial Officer in 2016. Most recently he was the Vice President of Finance and Corporate Controller of Aptuit, LLC, a global contract research organization providing integrated early discovery to mid-phase drug development services in the pharmaceutical industry. Rob has over 20 years of leadership experience in the private and public sectors, holding managerial positions in the renewable energy, private equity, Internet and technology industries, including Davenport Newberry, Oak Investment Partners and INT Media Group. He began his career with Arthur Anderson LLP in the Assurance and Business Advisory Services Division. Rob is a CPA and received his BS degree in Accounting from Fairfield University.
Benefiting from the MMRF Pipeline
Benefiting from the MMRF Pipeline
Andrea Rosengarden, wife and mother, recently celebrated a few important family milestones, including two college graduations and a beautiful wedding. Her appreciation for the memories is indescribable, because they are things she wasn’t sure she would see after she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2008.
Andrea Rosengarden, wife and mother, recently celebrated a few important family milestones, including two college graduations and a beautiful wedding. Her appreciation for the memories is indescribable, because they are things she wasn’t sure she would see after she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2008.
To treat the disease, she underwent a stem cell transplant in 2009 and achieved remission for a couple of years. Then, in 2011, two things happened that would change the course of her treatment. She relapsed. And she and her husband Michael met people from the MMRF at a Race for Research 5K Walk/Run event in Chicago.
Andrea was initially prescribed Revlimid to treat the relapse, but when that didn’t halt the progression, she and Michael called the MMRF for help. The MMRF connected them with Dr. Andrzej Jakubowiak, Director of the Myeloma Program at the University of Chicago, which is a Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium member institution. Dr. Andrzej was new to the program and Andrea was his very first patient.
She was to face many challenges in the coming months, including kidneys that were failing, a second stem cell transplant, and changes in drug combinations. Nothing was successful at stopping the progression. Dr. Jakubowiak added Krypolis® (carfilzomib) — a drug championed by the MMRF — to Andrea’s regimen, and it worked.
Andrea remained on this regimen with great success until very recently, when she began to show signs of relapsing again. She was given Pomalyst® (pomalidomide), another drug that was accelerated by the MMRF and it’s partners. She has had tremendously successful results.
“This new drug has been remarkable,” she says. “It’s dramatic, it’s crazy that I am now where I am. Everybody is blown away by this, as well as I am. This is a miracle drug. The MMRF are the ones who have given it to me. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for all these new drugs.”
The MMRF and our partners currently have 21 drugs in the pipeline and aim to open a record-breaking 11 new clinical trials by the end of 2015. We have great hope that the next “miracle drug” may be among them. We hope, too, that you can help support our efforts.
