#34 - Chasing Our Cure with Dr David Fajgenbaum

Today my guest is Dr David Fajgenbaum.  David is the co-founder and President of the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network (CDCN), Founding Director of the Center for Cytokine Storm Treatment & Laboratory (CSTL), Associate Director of Patient Impact for the Penn Orphan Disease Center, and Associate Professor of Medicine in Translational Medicine & Human Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania. 

 

David’s story is truly fascinating.  While in medical school in 2010, David became critically ill with idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease (iMCD); he had his last rites read, and had four deadly iMCD relapses.   During this time, David decided to find way to overcome this disease.  He identified a treatment via a medication that was FDA approved for an entirely different ailment and realized this could help him with his disease.  As a result of that, David is in his longest remission ever.  His journey is described in his bestselling book Chasing My Cure: A Doctor’s Race to Turn Hope Into Action.

 

In 2022, David co-founded Every Cure to unlock the full potential of every drug to treat every disease possible.  David’s story is not only inspiring, but it is also a testament of the amazing things that are possible when science and human resolve are put work work in a collaborative environment for the benefit of mankind.  I know you will enjoy this conversation.  

 

Talk at the Clinton Global initiative at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAPT8kBLMvY

https://everycure.org/

https://chasingmycure.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castleman_Disease_Collaborative_Network

 

Credits

Song - Bittersweet

https://youtu.be/u7lDY0hECfM?si=sWbPZ-hFeFf9bnmM

by Ian D Joseph