Bristol Myers Squibb has signed Kasey Keller for a partnership around Breyanzi, giving the U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer a platform to discuss how the CD19-directed CAR-T cell therapy blocked the recurrence of his cancer.
Keller, the most-capped goalkeeper for the U.S. men’s national team, spent most of his playing career in Europe. After he returned home to play for Seattle Sounders FC in 2009, a routine scan for a possible hip injury led to a non-Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis, according to an announcement on Wednesday—World Cancer Day—that marks the first time the athlete has spoken publicly about his cancer battle.
Physicians monitored the slow-moving cancer for several years before unexplained weight loss led them to start Keller on chemotherapy. A new diagnosis of large B‑cell lymphoma (LBCL) allowed Keller to receive Breyanzi shortly after the FDA approved the cell therapy in 2021. He responded to the therapy, entering remission that continues to this day.
The collaboration with Keller is aimed at boosting awareness of and education around Breyanzi, BMS said in the announcement, since, currently, only around two in every 10 eligible patients receive the treatment “due to the complex logistical and geographic barriers affecting patients and providers.”
Keller’s story is detailed on the Breyanzi website under the heading of the “Cure is the Goal” campaign. The website hosts a 90-second ad that starts with him walking onto a soccer field on a rainy night.
“Want to know how to beat cancer? Be more like cancer. Be relentless. Be a force of nature. Refuse to be kept down. Ignore the rules,” he says in the clip.
The voiceover plays over shots of Keller walking determinedly in the rain, interspersed with dramatic footage of cells expanding, lightning flashes and a storm on the ocean. Later, the ad shows archival footage of the soccer star during his playing days.
After the setup, Keller pitches Breyanzi as a way to “give cancer a taste of its own medicine.”
The video features a brief explanation of the cell therapy, which is made from each patient’s own immune cells. Once another narrator has read out the safety warnings, Keller returns to say, “You have what it takes to beat cancer, because with Breyanzi, cure is the goal.”
BMS is running the campaign to support a fast-growing product. Breyanzi sales grew (PDF) 58% in the third quarter, rising to the blockbuster run rate of $359 million. BMS named LBCL as a key driver of the 45% growth it saw in the U.S.