This session will open with a conversation with Robert Wilkie, Secretary, US Department of Veterans Affairs, followed by a panel discussion.

The mental health system we have is a shadow of the system we need. It is estimated that one out of five Americans lives with a diagnosable mental health condition, and only 40 percent are receiving treatment. As a result, they die an average of 25 years earlier than other people. Unaddressed serious mental health conditions cost the country nearly $200 billion in lost earnings and productivity annually. Globally, it's more than $2.5 trillion.

Shockingly, there have been very few medical innovations to address mental health needs in recent decades; the number of active programs in biopharma companies has declined 70 percent over the last ten years. The session will address issues related to the research and development pipeline, open science that can democratize breakthroughs, the promise of early intervention, building supportive communities, and how the mental health parity law can be a tool for unlocking new pathways to treatments.

Part 1:

• Guest Robert Wilkie, Secretary, US Department of Veterans Affairs
• Moderator Michael Milken, Chairman, Milken Institute

Part 2:

• Moderator Freda Lewis-Hall, Executive Vice President and Chief Patient Officer, Pfizer
• Speaker Kay Jamison, Co-Director, Mood Disorders Center, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
• Speaker Ronald Kessler, McNeil Family Professor of Health Care Policy, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School 
• Speaker Robert Nelsen, Co-Founder and Managing Director, ARCH Venture Partners
• Speaker Richard Pops, Chairman and CEO, Alkermes, Inc.
• Speaker Brandon Staglin, President, One Mind