OUR PURPOSE PIONEERING SCIENCE PATIENTS OUR PEOPLE ENVIRONMENT COMMUNITY REPORTING 38 ADVANCING HEALTH ACCESS AND EQUITY BIOGEN 2021 YEAR IN REVIEW We partnered with PAGs around our #MSisPersonal campaign, launched in 2021 to raise awareness of health equity issues facing the MS community. The campaign featured a four-episode podcast series, “My Extraordinary Life with MS”, and encouraged users to share their personal stories on their social media channels using #MSisPersonal. Another 2021 social media series, #MSBeyondWords, shared the culturally diverse stories of three MS patients in Europe, narrated in Spanish, Italian and Punjabi. Via art and animation, MS Beyond Words visualizes experiences of living with MS, and the series has garnered nearly 1.2 million impressions. In Germany we organized an interactive online dialogue for MS patients, including MS patients, an influencer and neurologist who is the managing director of the biggest German MS PAG, Deutsche Multiple Sklerose Gesellschaft. Through collaboration with PAG MS Cabin, Biogen Japan created a feature-length movie, “ From Whence the Light Comes,” highlighting the challenges of MS, from social stigma to access to medicine, and the establishment of a pioneering PAG. The movie won the Best Pioneer Award from the Japan Film Festival Los Angeles. SMA Biogen works with a number of SMA Patient Advocacy Groups, including Cure SMA, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the SMA Foundation to further SMA awareness and support. In 2021, we held the second virtual Patient Advocacy Groups Forum, focused on adult SMA patients, facilitating best practice sharing among eight high-profile speakers in PAGs and research organizations, with more than 60 attendees from 17 countries. Key themes included deficits in personal assistance for adult SMA patients and treatment access challenges across Europe. Germany also held an interactive SMA Awareness Month livestream event, which included five patient speakers across three panels focused on family planning and pregnancy, growing up with SMA, privacy and assistance. SPOTLIGHT From caregiver to patient Having lost a number of family members, including both of his parents, to Alzheimer’s Disease, Greg had to come to terms with his own diagnosis. Stunned yet not surprised when hearing the news, his first concern was his children. “Alzheimer’s has dramatically changed my life. Having lost a maternal grandfather, my mother, my paternal uncle, my father, to this disease, and being there at both my parents’ deathbeds and watching them go through this, I knew what was in store,” shared Greg. Þ HEAR GREG’S STORY Þ LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ALZHEIMER’S PUZZLE, WHERE YOU ALSO CAN SUBSCRIBE TO RECEIVE REGULAR UPDATES FROM BIOGEN In Taiwan, several efforts are underway to raise SMA awareness, including a documentary series; work with the bureau of education to develop an elementary school-level book, Zac’s Playbook, with 1,500 books already distributed to schools in major cities; and engaging local celebrities to create and promote an original song and video for teen and adult SMA patients – which has already been viewed more than 300,000 times on YouTube. Biogen also supports SMA patients through our family access managers (FAMs), go-to resources when a SMA patient or their guardian has a question related to the nonclinical factors of SMA, including logistics of managing the disease and coordinating with their care team.