Our Own Miracles of Medicine Stories

Making miracles a reality

"I have been with Covance for 19 years, and I am a Study Coordinator in Early Development Services.

"Due to my cancer diagnosis, I was on what they call "dense dosing" chemotherapy, which means that you have chemo every two weeks instead of every three weeks. The dense dosing greatly reduces the risk of reoccurrence.

"Specifically, it takes about three weeks for your cell count to return to normal after chemo, so when they are "dense dosing", they treat you with drugs to boost your cell count. Thanks to the drug and the work of Covance, my white blood cells stayed high enough for me to undergo a more aggressive form of chemotherapy that would not have been possible without it."

"A miracle of medicine actually saved my life, not once but twice. When I was in college, I ended up in the intensive care unit with a life-threatening infection after having a wisdom tooth pulled. With a month of treatment, I was still on the edge of death. It was a new anti-infective in clinical trials that ultimately saved my live.

"I'm also a cancer survivor who was initially given only six months to live. Those fights against what were expected to be fatal illnesses inspired me to reach higher and work even harder to make things better. They taught me to live life to the fullest, to appreciate the opportunities you have and your talents, and to make a positive contribution every day."

"I work for IT Compliance with Covance.

"I have asthma. I am classified as a moderate to severe asthmatic - emphasis on the "severe". I first developed asthma when I was 11 at which time my life of doctor's visits, emergency room visits, and hospital stays began.

"During the last 26 years, I have been on over 17 different kinds of medications. I have been hospitalized four times with a stay longer than 24 hours. One particular attack during college kept me in an oxygen tent for 5 days. There was a period over a number of years when I had very few attacks, and life almost seemed normal. I didn't need medication. In 2000, I had several life-changing events take place in a short period of time. The asthma returned. The associated grief and stress left me sick all the time. My doctor put me under the care of an asthma specialist in late 2003. The specialist put me on six different kinds of medicine at the same time. Despite my eventual recovery, something was still missing. My lower lung capacity was still greatly decreased even with taking all these other high-power asthma medications.

"In June of 2004, my doctor put me on a new drug that had just been released. I started taking the drug on 6/10/2004. I had a regularly scheduled appointment with the specialist on 6/28/2004. In 18 days, I had a 17% increase in my lower lung capacity. By 9/22/2004, I had another 33% increase. The drug had increased my capacity by 50% in just four months. My lung capacity is increasing each month. I can now exercise for extended periods. I can stay outdoors longer.

"Covance had a huge impact on me. We conducted the drug studies for all of the afore-mentioned drugs. I have benefited from each one of them. The drug, however, has had the most impact on me and, moreover, I feel like I contributed to its eventual availability for asthma treatment. In September of 2001, Covance Central Laboratories won a safety study for the main ingredient in the drug. In January of 2002, I logged the paperwork to have the project started. It was a small project. Still for me, it was a life milestone. In February of 2004, the FDA granted US approval for this drug. Covance made a difference by conducting the safety study.

"Everything we do at Covance makes a difference. How exciting to know that I had a very small part in helping bring a drug to market sooner for my own benefit!"