Roche says hola to Hispanic, Latinx multiple sclerosis communities

Health disparities are finally getting the attention they deserve, but too often the Hispanic/Latinx community is an afterthought. Roche’s Genentech is putting this community front and center with the #MSVisibility 2022 initiative “Breaking Barriers” featuring a Spanish-language video aimed at education about the disease.

Switching back and forth between English and Spanish with subtitles, the video, located on Genentech’s corporate YouTube channel, is part of a wider #MSVisibility playlist. The 22-minute video features a mix of doctors, patients, advocates and some star power in the form of Mexican singer and Grammy-award winner Ximena Sariñana. Performing her hit “Lo Bailado,” Genentech’s commercial, medical and government affairs lead for neuroimmunology Jennifer Kim calls it a reference “to the resilience of people living with MS.”

Genentech chose YouTube because the pharma’s research found Hispanic/Latinx community members are frequent users of the site. Reaching this demographic is especially important as there are an estimated 180,000 U.S. cases in this community living with MS. This is about 20% of the MS patient population.

“MS manifests differently in various ethnic populations, and even individuals,” Kim said in an interview. “On average, MS symptoms start at a younger age and there is a higher frequency of optic and spinal disease in the Hispanic/Latinx community and the disease progresses faster and, overall, is more severe.”

In addition to the “Breaking Barriers” video, the #MSVisibility 2022 campaign includes culturally relevant programming such as videos, educational resources, social media content and other efforts from the MS community. Sariñana and MS social media influencers Lina Light and Crystal Bedoya, who also appear in “Breaking Barriers,” will promote the video on their personal channels, and all members of the pharma and all partners are invited to use the hashtag to further outreach on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Of course, it takes more than a hashtag to make real change.

“Health inequities are complex and are tied to social determinants of health, barriers to healthcare access, and healthcare workforce cultural competency. As a result, we cannot expect to solve this multi-layered problem with any one-dimensional solution, but we hope to continue chipping away at this problem through this initiative and others as well as our efforts to advance inclusive research and clinical trials,” Kim said.

Roche's MS drug Ocrevus, its biggest-selling product, made $4.9 billion last year and is FDA approved for both relapsing and primary progressive forms of multiple sclerosis. Just over $3.6 billion of its sales come from the U.S.

Future plans for Ocrevus include phase 3b trials with a higher dose of Ocrevus for relapsing MS and primary progressive MS.