A short film that premiered earlier this month tracks the journeys of three people who discovered a renewed commitment to living their lives to the fullest after being diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
The creation of “Second Winds” is part of AbbVie’s ongoing work not only to “capture the real-world experience of people with the diseases that we serve,” but also, in doing so, to forge connections between people, as Christine Armstrong, director of patient advocacy for the company’s oncology portfolio, told Fierce Pharma Marketing in an interview.
“It’s people seeing themselves. So, there’s a great amount of reflection and representation—that representation of seeing somebody with their disease,” Armstrong said, noting that those real-life depictions are especially important among “rare and/or difficult-to-treat” cancers like CLL, a blood cancer that typically can’t be cured but can often be managed for years or decades with treatment.
“Making that connective tissue between individuals who happen to have these diseases is just a critical part of helping others create connection and learn and see themselves and find comfort in that,” she said.
AbbVie is the maker of CLL treatments Imbruvica, a BTK inhibitor first approved by the FDA in 2013, and Venclexta, a BCL-2 inhibitor that earned its initial sign-off in 2016.
The Big Pharma has previously turned to the short film format to highlight patient stories in its therapeutic wheelhouse, including in a documentary that debuted at the 2023 South by Southwest festival and told the stories of three people with eczema.
That creative work is “very synergistic” with AbbVie’s efforts to develop new treatments in those diseases, Armstrong noted: “Innovation in medicines, innovations in therapies is very much paired with this innovation in patient storytelling,” she said.
“Second Winds,” directed by award-winning filmmaker Dominic Gill, follows Christina, Jeff and Alejandro, each of whom has been living with CLL for several years.
Throughout the 16-minute film, the trio shares their individual stories of receiving the diagnosis and then, with the support of family and friends, learning to reframe their priorities and focus on the positive, while also staying as active as possible—continuing to hike, bike, ski, paddleboard, skateboard and more.
The film premiered Nov. 13 at a Los Angeles screening hosted by “Modern Family” actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson and featured a panel discussion with its three stars.
The response to the film at the premiere was “so overwhelmingly inspirational,” according to Armstrong, who also participated in the panel.
“This is a documentary about resilience, very much the human condition. Yes, these three individuals share a disease in CLL, but they also share this demonstration of how agile, resilient, expansive the human spirit is—in the face of a cancer diagnosis, with what treatment has allowed them to do, but really them on the other side of it,” she said.
“If you had no connection to the film, you would have walked away with your heart full and maybe a tear in your eye, just from how wonderful it is to see people making the most of their lives given a situation that may or may not have had a certain outcome,” she added.