Since its founding, each year Health Advances has made a donation to a worthy cause in the name of its clients and friends. In 1998, a member of our staff asked that we consider the newly-established Children’s Pompe Foundation, formed by one of her Harvard Business School classmates to find a cure for a rare genetic disease that afflicted two of his children. Soon after our donation, we had an opportunity to meet John Crowley and began a long professional and personal relationship. In 2000, a client asked us to visit a researcher working in the field of Pompe’s disease and advise them on investing in a company based on the research. During our meeting with the investigator, we discussed the need for a CEO and he said he believed he had a candidate, John Crowley. We agreed. Our client proceeded with a seed investment in the company that became known as Novazyme. A team from Health Advances worked with John to prepare the initial business plan that would support the first round of fundraising and continued to work with the Novazyme team until the company’s sale. Since then, we have worked with John on strategy development for several other companies.

A passion for helping others continues to be one of the defining cultural elements of Health Advances. However, rarely in our work with pharmaceutical, biotech, or medical product companies do we have the opportunity to develop personal relationships with the patients and care-givers who will directly benefit from our strategy work. Over the last ten years we have had a chance to get to know John and his family. We admire their courage and value their friendship. The story captured in Geeta Anand’s book, “The Cure” and now in the movie “Extraordinary Measures” is very special. We are privileged to witness the dedicated, creative work taking place in the research labs of our clients as they seek innovative therapies to improve the lives of patients. We thank them all for their efforts.

For more information visit the following web sites:
Extraordinary Measures (the movie) facebook page
Extraordinary Measures (the movie) website
The Cure (the book)
Crowley Family website