Growing up in a small town south of Mexico City, Pablo Legorreta learned at an early age the importance of giving back to the community.
“I was fortunate to grow up with a mother who was very socially conscious and really instilled in me and my brother and sisters this notion that we were privileged in Mexico just by the virtue of having an education, having a roof over our heads,” Legorreta said.
His mother was involved with the Red Cross, and she would sometimes take Legorreta and his siblings to a Red Cross hospital to do volunteer work. This experience, which included doing odd jobs like painting walls, cleaning up, and collecting donations, left a lasting impression.
“When I saw that we were doing these things and that people were appreciating it and benefiting,” Legorreta said, “it made a big difference, and it’s been part of my life since I was a teenager.”
That awareness of social inequities along with an abiding sense to do something to address them, has shaped Legorreta’s life and work. He and the company he founded, Royalty Pharma, have demonstrated that commitment by making generous gifts to two initiatives at Mount Sinai: $20 million to the Institute for Health Equity Research (IHER) and $500,000 to the Center for Post-COVID Care.
Royalty Pharma, where Legorreta serves as Chief Executive Officer, advances life science innovation by providing much-needed capital to biopharma research institutions. Legorreta said the company’s success triggered the philanthropic impulse he had developed thanks to his family’s influence. From his view, supporting research institutions that are advancing medicine, striving to meet unmet medical needs, and improving people’s lives is not just a natural extension of Royalty Pharma’s business interests, but a worthwhile project in its own right.
“When I realized that the two main areas of focus for IHER were going to be trying to understand the disparity in access to health and the disparity in health outcomes, it seemed to me like those two things were really incredible purposes to actually try to get involved with,” Legorreta said.
Likewise, Legorreta personally knew people and had family members who were experiencing long-term difficulties from COVID, the complexities of which remain a mystery to medical science. But once he learned that Mount Sinai was creating a center designed specifically to study the effects of the virus, he saw an opportunity to make an impact.
“When I was talking with the senior administration at Mount Sinai, one of them shared with me this idea of creating a Center to try to initially just learn what is it, what is the long-term effects of this virus?” Legorreta said “There was a need to do a lot of research, also, to understand what treatments could be used, and then are there treatments that could be developed? When I heard about all of that I realized that it was also a very worthwhile cause. I thought it was another good thing for us to actually support at Mount Sinai.”
Royalty Pharma’s commitment to IHER, which was launched in May 2020, extends far beyond its generous financial support. The company and IHER have a collaborative relationship that also provides Mount Sinai with access to expensive data that Royalty Pharma purchases as part of its core business function, in addition to training on how to use that data, and—in some cases—time and effort that members of the Royalty Pharma team put in that extends beyond their work for the company.
“Money is important, and $20 million is a lot, but I think the contribution that the team here is doing, of time, is probably more valuable than the $20 million,” Legorreta said. “I just want to make that point.”
Sandy Balkin, Senior Vice President, Strategy & Analytics at Royalty Pharma, is most impressed by the IHER team’s commitment to not just identifying the problems with disparities in health care delivery and outcomes, but to finding actionable solutions.
“I got introduced to this, and like other people at Royalty Pharma, this has become a passion of ours,” Balkin said. “Everyone here is truly proud of our relationship with Mount Sinai, and being able to contribute our intellectual capital—however small it may be compared to the unbelievable intellectual capital that is sitting at Mount Sinai—makes us know that every piece of value that we can add to that process is contributing something. It really makes us feel that we really want to continue to do what we do, not only helping companies bring medicines to patients but also helping get patients to those medicines.”
Royalty Pharma also sponsors an annual symposium on equity at Mount Sinai that brings together experts from some of the top organizations around the country. Sometimes, giving back to the community also involves getting numerous communities to work together. It’s something Pablo Legorreta and Royalty Pharma know all too well.
“Because at the end of the day, the way we’re going to succeed in addressing a lot of these things is by having other top organizations like Mount Sinai collaborate,” Legorreta said. “Mount Sinai’s not going to be able to solve the problem for the entire nation, but if we have Mount Sinai and other similar medical institutions around the country working together, maybe we’ll make a big difference.”
About the Institute for Health Equity Research Launched in May 2020, IHER’s mission is to identify, interrogate, and combat health inequities by building a future that is more equitable for all communities, including those that are non-white, low-income, immigrant, uninsured, and LGBTQ+. The disproportionate impact of issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic on these populations has highlighted the need for more rigorous study to identify the root causes and magnitude of disparities, to devise and test innovative solutions, and to take concrete action in response to findings.