Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), the first, preeminent, longest-tenured and pioneering owner, operator and developer of collaborative life science mega campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, continues to make a distinctive, steadfast and positive impact on the widespread and complex mental health crisis through one of the company’s bedrock social responsibility pillars that prioritizes this unprecedented crisis. With more than 1 in 5 American adults living with a mental illness and over 50,000 suicides in the United States in 2023, including over 6,000 veterans who die by suicide annually, the nation’s shared societal responsibility to drive forward treatments and solutions to this devastating public health challenge is immense. The National Alliance on Mental Illness estimates that untreated mental illness represents an economic burden to the nation of over $300 billion each year — a number that understates the true costs of these conditions for those afflicted as well as for their families and society.
“The staggering yet often overlooked mental health crisis in our country is the defining public health challenge of our time. We are very proud of the continuing tangible positive impact we have made through our key action and results-oriented initiatives, including our partnership with Verily, an Alphabet company, to pioneer OneFifteen, a one-of-a-kind full continuum of care model to treat addiction, and our crucial long-term efforts to ensure the Navy SEAL Foundation’s vital work in addressing the unique physical and mental health needs of our nation’s elite warriors,” said Joel S. Marcus, executive chairman and founder of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. and Alexandria Venture Investments. “We are inspired by the life science industry and the renewed interest it is generating in developing medicines for mental health disorders, as demonstrated by the recent advancement of multiple psychiatric therapies, including the first FDA-approved oral treatment for postpartum depression — from Alexandria tenants Biogen and Sage Therapeutics. We call for increased attention and policy action at the federal, state and local levels to transform the way we diagnose, treat and discuss mental illness. Our Alexandria Summit on Mental Health will set an agenda to drive significant reform, catalyze new mission-critical public-private partnerships and influence policy to accelerate innovation that saves lives.”
Leveraging Alexandria’s leadership position at the vanguard and heart of the $5 trillion secularly growing life science industry and the powerful collective voice of its esteemed Alexandria Summit community, the company, in partnership with former congressman Patrick J. Kennedy and The Kennedy Forum, is holding its second mission-critical Alexandria Summit on Mental Health today in Washington, DC. Alexandria has convened a diverse set of key decision makers, influential life science industry thought leaders, members of Congress, regulatory agency executives and other key policymakers to advance the development of novel, effective psychiatric therapies to address vast unmet need.
The Alexandria Summit on Mental Health will feature a mission-critical panel on the creation of a public-private partnership on biomarkers for depression, which is being led by Alexandria through its formation of a dedicated working group consisting of academics, innovators, non-profits, payors, providers and biopharmaceutical executives. The distinguished group aims to uniquely and impactfully harness advances in biomarker development and clinical trials to develop a modernized, data-driven and personalized framework for guiding patients to the therapies most likely to benefit them.
Alexandria has been leveraging deep partnerships with respected non-profits and leaders in its world-class life science and healthcare network to break the stigma around mental illness, promote mental health as essential to overall health and help drive the development of safe and effective treatments. Mental health issues often co-occur with substance use issues, with roughly 50 percent of individuals with severe mental disorders also impacted by addiction. In 2017, Alexandria and Verily created OneFifteen, a first-of-its-kind evidence-based program in Dayton, Ohio that offers a full continuum of care on a holistic campus ecosystem designed and developed by Alexandria. Since opening in 2019, OneFifteen has treated over 7,500 patients living with addiction and other substance use disorders.
Military personnel and veterans experience mental health and addiction issues at dramatically higher rates than the general U.S. population. Since 2010, Alexandria has been partnering with the Navy SEAL Foundation, enabling it to address the increasing need for specialized mental health support of Naval Special Warfare personnel and veterans. Most recently, Alexandria played an instrumental role in the establishment and launch of the foundation’s Warrior Fitness Program West Coast facility in San Diego. The cutting-edge facility provides Navy SEAL warriors and veterans with evidence-based support, advanced technology and expert personnel to help them physically and mentally recover and rebuild from injuries and trauma.
