HJBR Jul/Aug 2025

60 JUL / AUG 2025  I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE   Healthcare Briefs engagement, presentations, and team meetings. Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center Receives $400K to Expand Clinical Trials Program Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center’s clinical tri- als program has received a nearly $400,000 grant from the Gilead Foundation. This grant comes as Mary Bird Perkins has made gains in attracting local minority populations and underserved com- munities to take part in clinical trials. Currently, minority populations make up 21% of those on an active clinical trial at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center. In 2024, 18% of new clini- cal trial enrollments were from minority popula- tions—well above national averages, which tend to be disproportionately less than their represen- tation in the U.S. population. The two-year grant from the Gilead Founda- tion will fund a dedicated patient navigator and support community engagement opportunities to generate more awareness of how clinical trials outreach can benefit everyone, including histori- cally underrepresented populations in the Baton Rouge area. These efforts will help achieve the main goal of the grant, which is to see a 5–10% increase in participation rates of underrepre- sented populations in breast clinical trials by August 2026. For more information, contact Mary Bird Per- kins’ Clinical Research office at (225) 215-1375, or by email at clinicalresearch@marybird.com. An awareness campaign is also under devel- opment with Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center commissioning The Walls Project—a commu- nity reactivation group known for transforming public spaces through visual storytelling—to cre- ate a large-scale mural in North Baton Rouge. Designed to spark conversation and deepen public understanding of clinical trials, the mural will be shaped by input from local health lead- ers, community advocates, and the Cancer Cen- ter’s own creative team, ensuring the art reflects both the spirit and voices of the community it is aimed at reaching. The mural will be unveiled in North Baton Rouge late this summer. Those wanting to track its process can follow Mary Bird Perkins on the organization’s media channels. n in the year 2000. Think of that. Our country has the highest drug prices anywhere in the world by sometimes a factor of 5, 6, 7, 8 times. It’s not like they’re slightly higher. They’re 6, 7, 8 times. There are even cases of 10 times higher, so that you go 10 times more expensive for the same drug. That’s big numbers. Even though the United States is home to only 4% of the world’s popula- tion, pharmaceutical companies make more than two-thirds of their profits in America. So think of that. With 4% of the population, the pharmaceu- tical companies make most of their money, most of their profits from America. That’s not a good thing.” Trump explained that “middle men,” presum- ably Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), will be cut out by the order. “To accelerate these price restrictions and reductions, my administration will also cut out the middlemen. We’re going to totally cut out the famous middlemen. Nobody knows who they are, middlemen. I’ve been hear- ing the term for 25 years, middlemen. I don’t know who they are, but they’re rich, that I can tell you. We’re going to cut out the middlemen and facilitate the direct sale of drugs at the most favored-nation price directly to the American cit- izen. So we’re cutting out probably the middle- men, that’s so important, right? They got to do that. They’re worse than the drug companies. They don’t even make a product and they make a fortune. Got very smart business people, that I can tell you.” Trump said the U.S. will open to “safe and legal imports of affordable drugs from other countries, putting dramatic downward pressure on prices and, if necessary, we’ll investigate the drug com- panies, and we’ll in particular, investigate the countries that are doing this and we will add it onto the price that we charge them for doing business in America. In other words, we’ll add it on to tariffs if they don’t do what is right, which is everybody should equalize, everybody should pay the same price. And special interests may not like this very much, but the American people will. ”I’m doing this against the most powerful lobby in the world, probably, the drug lobby, drug and pharmaceutical lobby. But it’s one of the most important orders, I think, that’s ever been signed, certainly with regard to healthcare or health in the history of our country,” Trump concluded. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services, added remarks about the power of the pharmaceutical lobby: “Congress is controlled in so many ways by the pharmaceutical industry. There’s at least one pharmaceutical lobbyist for every congressman, every senator in Capitol Hill and every member of the Supreme Court; some estimates, three pharmaceutical companies, the industry itself spends three times what the next largest lobby- ist spends on lobbying. So this was an issue that people talked about, but nobody wanted to do anything because it was radioactive. They knew you couldn’t get it by Congress. We now have a president who is a man of his word, who has the courage. President Trump was taking money from the pharmaceutical industry, too. I think they gave you a hundred million dollars. But he can’t be bought, unlike most of the politicians in this country.” While many applauded the thought, industry insiders questioned what teeth an executive order has without legislation. Southeastern’s Dugas Center to Undergo Renovation, Expansion Southeastern Louisiana University has part- nered with North Oaks Health System through a sponsorship agreement to create the North Oaks Health System Academic and Athletic Complex. The project will include a major renovation and expansion enhancing its sports medicine, aca- demic, and athletic facilities. The project includes the complete renovation of the existing 27,890-square-foot, two-story Dugas Center and the construction of a new 25,250-square-foot, two-story addition at the south end zone of Strawberry Stadium. “We are thrilled to be collaborating with our long-term partners at North Oaks to further enhance our Sports Medicine program,” said Southeastern President William S. Wainwright. “The project focuses on creating a versatile envi- ronment that supports both academic develop- ment and athletic performance.” The renovated Dugas Center will provide upgraded administrative offices, a treatment room, classrooms for the growing Masters in Athletic Training program, a student commons area, and an amphitheater designed for academic