We Announced the $48.3M Federal Partnership at the White House! [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ElaCVvDZfI[/embedyt] It was incredibly special for me to speak at the White House on Wednesday about our funding from the federal government and what it will mean for patients like me. While on stage, I couldn’t help but think back to 14 years ago […]
Press and Media Appearances
9/19/2022: The new nonprofit Every Cure, backed by the Clinton Global Initiative, aims to identify generic drugs that could help people with rare diseases.
9/20/2022: A new nonprofit backed by the Clinton Global Initiative aims to identify generic drugs that could help people with rare diseases.
2/4/2017: They called him the Beast.David Fajgenbaum was the fittest of his friends at the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school, a 6-foot-3 gym addict and former quarterback at Georgetown. His mammoth hands seemed more suited to spiraling footballs than...
8/26/2019: Dr. David Fajgenbaum opens up about his remarkable true story and his new memoir in an interview with "GMA."
1/14/2018: David Fajgenbaum, a 32-year-old doctor at the University of Pennsylvania, is racing to find a cure for Castleman disease, an illness that’s “like a mix between an autoimmune disease and a cancer.” Fajgenbaum is not only devoting his life to this cause for other patients – he’s been battling the rare and deadly disease himself since 2010. TODAY’s Dylan Dreyer has this week’s Sunday Spotlight...
4/24/2020: Fajgenbaum has made it his life's mission to chase a cure for Castleman disease. Now, he's chasing another. His team, his labs, were designed for this exact kind of medical research.
9/16/2019: This med student was given last rites before finding a treatment that saved his life. His method could help millions
4/4/2017: David Fajgenbaum has nearly died five times. He’s had his last rites administered, and he knows he could relapse at any moment. Still, the 32-year-old doctor doesn’t waste energy on self-pity. He can’t. He’s too busy trying to find a cure for the rare disease that’s come so close to killing him...
7/11/2016: WEST PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- One local doctor is urging lawmakers to pass a bill that could help thousands of people with rare diseases to find effective treatments.He's a doctor and a researcher, but he's also a patient battling a rare disease himself.A rare disease means it affects a very small percentage of the population. But all together, about 30 million Americans have one of the 7,000 rare diseases...
5/5/2019: David Fajgenbaum didn’t die. He thought he would. He almost did.But he didn’t.What almost killed him was Castleman disease, an immune disorder so rare that David, a medical student when the symptoms first appeared, had never heard of it...
11/24/2015: PHILADELPHIA (WTVD) -- Looking at family photos, it appears David Fajgenbaum has it all: A medical degree and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania, a beautiful wife, and a job that keeps his creative juices flowing.But then there are other pictures that tell a much different story - one of a rare and deadly disease with no cure...
7/13/2016: After the third time he nearly died but before the fourth, David Fajgenbaum embraced a new motto: Think it, do it. “I got out of the hospital with this profound sense of, you need to make the most of every second,” he says. A former college football player with close-cropped dark hair and a firm handshake, Fajgenbaum, 31, is the picture...
Articles and Insights
2023 Philadelphia Citizen of the Year
I am beyond honored to be named the 2023 Philadelphia Citizen of the Year by The Philadelphia Citizen. This recognition is a testament to our amazing team’s work and the support that so many of you have shared with us! It has been the honor of a lifetime to work with our amazing teams at […]
Celebrating 10 Years in Remission!
Reflecting on 10 Years in Overtime – Time I Never Thought I’d Have At Every Cure, we are utilizing artificial intelligence to identify the most promising new uses for existing drugs across all 3,000 drugs and 20,000 diseases and we need your help to make the biggest impact possible! Whether it’s forwarding this email to a friend or […]
A New Chapter of Turning Hope Into Action
Our family grew! We welcomed our second little one into the world On November 5, 2021, we welcomed baby David into the world. He is the sweetest little brother to Amelia. It feels like such a dream to have this incredible family when I think back to when I was on my deathbed 13 years […]
From Chasing My Cure to Every Cure
Inspired by my journey discovering a drug that could be repurposed to save my life, I co-founded Every Cure in September 2022 to unlock the full potential of existing medicines to treat every disease and every patient possible. I had the opportunity to announce Every Cure’s launch during the Opening Session of the Clinton Global […]
New England Journal of Medicine published our paper on Cytokine Storm
I’m thrilled to share that my paper on Cytokine Storms with Carl June, MD, was published today in the New England Journal of Medicine! A “cytokine storm” is an immune response that spirals out of control and occurs with Castleman disease, CART, severe COVID19, and other conditions. We developed the first unifying definition of a […]
First repurposed drug reported to decrease COVID19 mortality
Repurposing existing drugs to treat COVID19 provides our best opportunity to save lives ASAP. As I like to say, we’ve got to teach old dogs new tricks! I know the power of drug repurposing: I’m alive today thanks to a repurposed drug. Given the overlap between COVID19 and Castleman disease, I’ve suspected that treatments used […]
Our team publishes first paper from CORONA project
With doctors and researchers around the world searching for effective treatments for COVID-19, many drugs approved to treat other diseases are being used in hopes that they’ll be effective against the virus, a use that’s known as “off-label.” A volunteer army that Dr. David Fajgenbaum assembled has catalogued every use documented in medical literature so […]
What is a cytokine storm?
You’ve probably seen the term “cytokine storm” in the news a lot recently. That’s because COVID19 is able to unleash a cytokine storm in the most sick cases. As someone who has survived 5 deadly COVID19-like cytokine storms due to idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease and who studies cytokine storms in my lab, I thought I’d […]
Five years worth of cytokine storm research published on the same day
I’m so proud of my team at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Study & Treatment of Lymphadenopathies & Cytokine Storms. Today, five years worth of research into mechanisms involved in the idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease (iMCD) cytokine storm, which has major implications for other cytokine storms like COVID19, were published in two high-impact journals. […]
Castleman disease drug demonstrates efficacy against COVID19! But then a similar drug fails to show effect…
Wow, my head is spinning from these recent clinical trial results. Within minutes of one another, two conflicting studies were released. The first I’ll highlight is of tocilizumab (the drug that my friend and colleague Kazu Yoshizaki developed to treat Castleman disease and tested on himself to prove that it was safe before giving it […]
Five life lessons from Chasing My Cure that we need to share during COVID19
I decided to write Chasing My Cure: A Doctor’s Race To Turn Hope Into Action, because I learned so much about life, hope, and resilience from nearly dying five times and fighting back to find a treatment that is saving my life. I knew these lessons were applicable beyond those battling disease and felt compelled […]
He Cured His Own Disease; Reader’s Digest, May 2020
Check out the pdf of the article “He Cured His Own Disease” that ran in the May 2020 issue of Reader’s Digest here.
[Video] Learn how we’re helping in the fight against COVID19
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HFHfTd9-Y8[/embedyt] Check out the above video about our COVID19 drug repurposing work or go to: https://youtu.be/0HFHfTd9-Y8 Thank you to Jimmy Baggott for making this amazing video! #ThinkItDoIt #FromHopeToAction #ChasingMyCure #ChasingCOVIDsCure David Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, MSc, is a groundbreaking physician-scientist, disease hunter, speaker, and bestselling author of the acclaimed memoir, Chasing My Cure: A […]
I wasn’t the first Castleman community member to test a drug on myself
As I’ve shared before, repurposing existing drugs to treat COVID19 (and every other disease) is our best opportunity to save lives as quickly as possible. One drug that is being repurposed and has gotten a lot of attention is tocilizumab (Actemra). As I shared in #ChasingMyCure (excerpt below), it was originally developed by my friend […]
Our army achieved our goal: extract data on every drug used to treat COVID19
When fighting a war, information really matters. You need to know what weapons have been tried and which ones have been most (and least) effective. This information helps soldiers to adjust their strategy. The same holds true when fighting a global war against a disease like COVID19 (or Castleman disease or any disease!). We need […]
Why we joined the fight against COVID19. How you can help too.
As I was driving down to North Carolina to visit my family at the beginning of the COVID-19 global pandemic, I found myself hoping and praying that COVID-19 would not have the kind of impact that was being projected. This wasn’t the first time I hoped and prayed for something that felt so out of […]
I’ve nearly died five times battling a COVID19-like illness. Here’s what I’ve learned.
This weekend, I was going to go to San Diego to see my best friends from medical school for the first time in 2-3 years and then to SF for 4 talks that I was really excited about! I was going to evangelize about repurposing drugs for new uses to save lives (I’m literally alive […]
[Video] A Doctor Works to Cure His Disease and Help Others
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeA1rbkhtZE[/embedyt]
Chasing My Cure in the news!
It has been amazing to see all of the incredible press and media attention for Chasing My Cure! Check out the various stories below: Chasing My Cure in the press: Good Morning America, August 26, 2019 Philadelphia Magazine, August 28, 2019 Philadelphia Inquirer, September 5, 2019 Next Big Idea Club—Top 6 Nonfiction Books of Fall […]
Innovation is needed in the fight against rare diseases
Congress should encourage companies to repurpose existing drugs for rare diseases, potentially doubling the number of treatment options for patients. Lately, there has been a national uproar over the rising cost of medicine in the U.S. While this is an important public debate, it largely overlooks the critical importance of innovation, which is desperately needed […]
