What's Happening

By Lydia Kuykendal
Mercy Investments

February 6, 2024, Adrian, Michigan – Last year, shareholder health work focused on intellectual property protections for branded drugs. Specifically, it sought to clarify the relationship between pharmaceutical company patenting and access strategies. 

That work continues, with the Portfolio Advisory Office filing resolutions at five pharma companies – Eli Lilly, Gilead Sciences, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and Merck. Several regulatory changes over the past year will impact this issue, and we hope that companies see these second-year proposals as a way to prepare for these coming changes.

First, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) empowers the federal government to negotiate some drug prices. Some have argued that it enacts significant patent reform, specifically around the issue this proposal seeks to understand. This comes from a critical provision of the IRA that states the only drugs that qualify to be considered for price negotiations are drugs with no generic competition, thus discouraging extended patent exclusivities. Additionally, three bills addressing patent reform passed out of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in 2023 and, if passed, would impact pharma companies’ current practices.

In addition to the continuing work on patents, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) health group has started a workstream around the right to health. This is a human right: the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, as defined by the World Health Organization. Access to medicines is a critical component of the right to health. 

Target 3.8 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 3 assesses progress toward “access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.” The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health has made clear that states and pharmaceutical firms share the responsibility for increasing access to medicines and recommends that firms “should adopt a human rights policy statement which expressly recognizes the importance of human rights generally and the right to the highest attainable standard of health in particular.”

However, a quick look at drug pricing shows that U.S. pharmaceutical companies are not supporting this right. An analysis by the Rand Corporation concluded that U.S. prices for branded drugs were nearly 3.5 times higher than prices in 32 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries. A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found “prescription drug costs to be an important health policy area of public interest and concern.”

Shareholder proposals at Eli Lilly, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Pfizer seek to understand whether the business model of pharma companies may pose human rights risks. The current business model of the pharmaceutical sector, which in many instances prioritizes profitability over patient health, often infringes on these rights. Given pending legislation in the European Union that would mandate human rights due diligence as called for in the UN guiding principles, companies undertaking human rights due diligence will be ahead of the curve. 

International human rights organizations have recognized the human right to health for decades. Drug manufacturers have a responsibility to operationalize a business model that promotes this right worldwide. If, as all companies in this industry state, patients are indeed the most essential part of their business, this should be an achievable task.

 

April 13, 2023, Adrian, Michigan – She is a joy to be around. Her constant, prayerful presence, sitting and keeping vigil with many of the Sisters as they lie dying.  Her great smile lights up every room she enters. She is committed to showing up every day with joy and gladness. She always looks out for everyone.

These are some of the many ways that Adrian Dominican Sisters, Associates, Co-workers, and friends to describe Sister Miriam Joseph Lekan on the occasion of her 100th birthday. The spirit of gratitude, admiration, and love was present April 12, 2023, during a birthday celebration, which began with Mass in her honor.  

Birthday Celebration

Sister Sharon Spanbauer, Mission Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter based in Adrian, greeted the assembly, noting that Sister Miriam Joseph was joining the ranks of beloved Adrian Dominican centenarians. “We pray that Sister Miriam Joseph’s heart will be overflowing with joy, knowing the countless ways she blesses our daily lives,” Sister Sharon said.

In a reflection on the Gospel story of the risen Jesus’ encounter with two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Sister Judy Friedel, OP, Chapter Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, noted the similarity between Jesus’ outreach to the disciples and Sister Miriam Joseph’s to the people she encounters. “Jesus and Miriam enjoy the vitality and wonder of communion with God’s people,” Sister Judy said. “May we endeavor to do so as well, even more consciously and eagerly these Easter days.”

Left: Sister Judy Friedel, OP, Chapter Prioress of the Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, offers a reflection during a special Mass on April 12, 2023, marking Sister Miriam Joseph Lekan’s 100th birthday; Center: Father James Hug, SJ, priest chaplain for the Adrian Dominican Sisters, greets Sister Miriam Joseph Lekan; Right: The assembly at Mass offers the traditional Dominican Blessing to Sister Miriam Joseph Lekan

During the afternoon celebration, Sister Judy read some of the many responses to the question of the importance of celebrating Sister Miriam Joseph’s 100th birthday. Sister Miriam Joseph also received a proclamation from Angela Sword Heath, Mayor of Adrian; a Pontifical Blessing from Pope Francis; more than 100 birthday cards; and two bouquets: one from Holy Rosary Mission Chapter and the other from St. Augustine Health Campus, a senior living facility in Cleveland where Sister Miriam Joseph ministered for many years.

Sister Elise D. García, OP, Prioress of the Adrian Dominican Congregation, also paid tribute to her. “Such great love we have for you,” she told Sister Miriam Joseph. “I think you can feel that deep gratitude to you for the life you have given to so many of us and to so many people on God’s Earth.” Sister Elise also spoke of the blessing she received from Sister Miriam Joseph’s presence during daily Mass and her loving presence to the Sisters who are dying. 

Sister Miriam Joseph responded with heart-felt thanksgiving to all assembled for her birthday.

Left: Sister Judy Friedel, OP, Chapter Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, presents a proclamation from Adrian Mayor Angela Sword Heath to Sister Miriam Joseph Lekan; Right: Sister Elise D. García, OP, Prioress of the Adrian Dominican Congregation, offers words of gratitude and appreciation to Sister Miriam Joseph Lekan. 

Sister Miriam Joseph’s Early Life

“Living a religious life is all planned for me, [involving] complete trust in God in every challenge that came up,” she said in an interview before the celebration. She expressed her “deep appreciation for all the friendships and the assistance that I had throughout all these years – and it doesn’t feel like 81 years as a nun and 100 years chronologically.”

Born on April 10, 1923, in Cleveland, Ohio, and baptized Josephine Bernadette Lekan, she was the ninth of the 12 children of Joseph and Frances (Perko) Lekan. Like most men in their neighborhood, Joseph worked in the American Steel and Wire Company. “Growing up during the Depression years, we all learned what it meant to live a life of hardship,” Sister Miriam Joseph said. 

The family was very happy when Josephine entered the Adrian Dominican Congregation in June 1942. “I went to school with Adrian Dominican Sisters for eight years” at St. Lawrence in Cleveland, Sister Miriam Joseph recalled. While attending Holy Name, a co-ed high school with the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, she felt a call to religious life. She delayed entering the Adrian Dominican Congregation for a year so that she could spend time with her oldest brother, who was returning home from the seminary in Switzerland. 

Years in Mission

She took her religious name, Sister Miriam Joseph, when she was received into the novitiate on December 31, 1942. She professed first vows on January 4, 1944, and final vows on January 4, 1949. Sister Miriam Joseph received a bachelor's degree in Latin from Siena Heights College (University) in Adrian in 1952 and a master's degree in Latin from DePaul University, Chicago, in 1959.

Sister Miriam Joseph spent the first 37 years of ministry in education and recalled the years when Adrian Dominican Sisters received an assignment to ministry every year in August. “Each appointment was kind of a challenge – not knowing what that new appointment was going to be and yet it always ended up in a happy ministry, wherever it was,” she said.

Education ministry took Sister Miriam Joseph to classrooms in Illinois, Michigan, Florida, and Ohio. While she enjoyed her time in all of the schools, two stand out in her memory. She was one of two Adrian Dominican Sisters sent to Grand Ledge – near Lansing, Michigan – to open St. Michael School. “I couldn’t believe when I was assigned to open a school,” she said. “The first summer I had to come to Adrian and take administration classes.”

She also has special memories of Bishop Quarter, a boarding school for boys in Oak Park, Illinois. “If you know anything about boarding school, you’re on duty 24 hours out of 24,” she said. She worked with the first- and second-grade students. She recalled one young student still awake after 10 p.m. because he couldn’t go to sleep. She asked if he was feeling lonesome. “He sat up and threw his arms around me,” she recalled. “That’s all he needed was giving a hug to someone besides his mother.”

During her last teaching assignment at St. Francis Xavier, Medina, Ohio, Sister Miriam asked for – and received – permission to train to be a licensed practical nurse. She studied at Lakewood School of Practical Nursing in Lakewood, Ohio, and, when she had passed the Boards, was hired at St. John Hospital in Cleveland. She worked there for eight years – until the hospital closed. She then worked for the newly established St. Augustine Health Campus, a senior living facility, until her retirement in July 2000. “I loved both teaching when I did it and I liked nursing,” Sister Miriam Joseph said. “It might be my inner liking to serve people.”

Sister Miriam said she was surprised to be turning 100. “I don’t look at the numbers,” she said. “I don’t think of it as 100. I’m just so grateful for these 81 years that I’ve been an Adrian Dominican. God was just in the divine plan for me, 81 years ago.”

View highlights from the celebration below.