Managing Director, FasterCures, Milken Institute Health
Sung Hee Choe is the managing director on the FasterCures team at the Milken Institute. She oversees the programmatic portfolio and is responsible for day-to-day operations.
Esther Krofah is the executive vice president of Milken Institute Health, leading FasterCures, Public Health, the Future of Aging, and Feeding Change. She has extensive experience managing efforts to unite diverse stakeholders to solve critical issues and achieve shared goals that improve patients’ lives.
Cell and gene therapies are a new category of medicines transforming how we treat and potentially cure disease. Both cell and gene therapies seek to modify genetic material to fight disease. Cell therapies involve cultivating or modifying cells outside the body before injecting them into a patient. Gene therapies use genetic material to manipulate the expression of a gene or alter the properties of an individual’s cells.
Today, seven cell and gene therapies are approved for marketing in the US and fewer than 10 are approved in Europe. Dozens of new cell and gene therapies are expected to become available in the US in the coming years. According to recent research, more than 1,000 cell and gene therapies are currently in development, with 50–75 therapies expected to be approved in the US by 2030.
In response to this growing pipeline and the hope these therapies offer, FasterCures convened roundtables and discussions to bring to light the unique regulatory and access considerations posed by cell and gene therapies. On November 3, 2021, FasterCures brought together its stakeholder community, along with Peter Marks, director of CBER at FDA, in a virtual roundtable. The goals of the roundtable included taking stock of the current status of cell and gene therapies given the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and identifying opportunities for collective engagement in 2022.
This report summarizes the key takeaways from the November 3 roundtable, and considers the developments that will take place in cell and gene therapies in 2022.
Hite’s decades of healthcare finance experience will enhance center’s approach to biomedical innovation WASHINGTON, August 13, 2019 – FasterCures, a center of the Milken Institute, today announced the appointment of Christopher Hite, Vice...
Los Angeles – April 15, 2021 – The Milken Institute Global Conference, an annual convening of global leaders in government, finance, health, academia, and philanthropy, will take place this fall from October 17-20, 2021 at The Beverly...
Milken Institute Global Conference Scheduled for October 17-20, 2021
Submitted electronically Ms. Dawn O’Connell Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) 200 Independence Ave. Washington, DC 20201 Re: 2023-2026 National...
Esther Krofah is the executive vice president of Milken Institute Health, leading FasterCures, Public Health, the Future of Aging, and Feeding Change. She has extensive experience managing efforts to unite diverse stakeholders to solve critical issues and achieve shared goals that improve patients’ lives.
“What outcomes matter to patients?” This question is asked at nearly every meeting in biomedical R&D and health care. As FasterCures has documented over the years, there is a big change afoot to place patients in the center of medical...
The Milken Institute Center for Public Health (the Center) focuses on chronic disease research, policy evaluation, and thought leadership by convening experts and stakeholders. As part of this work, the Center aims to change the public’s...
This study calculates the prevalence and economic effects of diseases related to obesity and overweight in the United States. These costs are paid by individuals and their households, employers, government, and society. The prevalence of...
While the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed many of the fault lines in the biomedical innovation ecosystem that have slowed progress for decades, we have also shown ourselves capable of innovating in ways we perhaps did not...
As the world reels from multiple crises in rapid succession, the opportunities to set food systems on a more sustainable and equitable path have never been more favorable, and in turn, the importance of multi-stakeholder convenings cannot...
Follicular lymphoma (FL) is a rare, slow-growing cancer that affects certain blood cells. People experiencing this form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma face multiple relapses over the course of their disease, which can run for years and sometimes...
Director, Science Philanthropy Accelerator for Research and Collaboration (SPARC) team, Milken Institute Strategic Philanthropy
Caitlyn Barrett, PhD, is a director on the Science Philanthropy Accelerator for Research and Collaboration (SPARC) team at Milken Institute Strategic Philanthropy. Her scientific expertise in cancer biology and neurodegeneration in addition to her experience in grant and program management, stakeholder engagement, and program analysis are brought to bear as she partners with philanthropists to maximize their impact on the biomedical ecosystem.
We advance our policy priorities through government engagement, independent research, and convening global leaders in finance, health, government, and philanthropy to discuss challenges and opportunities facing the world.
In 2022, FasterCures published a report titled The Current Landscape of the Science of Patient Input, which examined the progress of patient engagement (PE) in biomedical research and identified ways to overcome ongoing challenges. Building...
January 14, 2025 (Los Angeles, CA)—Raleigh, NC is the best-performing large metropolitan area, according to the 2025 Milken Institute Best-Performing Cities (BPC) report, taking the top spot in the rankings following two consecutive years...
Paul Guequierre is the director of strategic communications. In this role, he works to increase the profile of Milken Institute in the media, raise the visibility of issues important to the organization and its stakeholders, and expand the Institute's digital presence.
