2005 Joanie Winner

NBC Nightly News Anchor Brian Williams (left) and Joan’s Legacy foundation president Patrick McNeive (center) present Wall Street Journal Senior Editorial Writer Rob Pollock with the 2005 "Joanie Award"

2005: Robert L. Pollock, The Wall Street Journal

On November 15, 2005, Joan's Legacy awarded its "Joanie Award" to Robert L. Pollock, Senior Editorial Page Writer for The Wall Street Journal, for excellence in journalism related to lung cancer.

Mr. Pollock won the "Joanie Award" for a series of editorials about the tremendous FDA-influenced challenges to cancer patients, including lung cancer patients, in accessing potentially life-saving drugs, including the targeted lung cancer therapy Iressa. In the finest tradition of advocacy journalism, Mr. Pollock proposed a new paradigm for the testing of cancer drugs that would do away with the placebo trials that many experts find ineffective and leave countless cancer patients without drugs and with little hope of survival. This series reflects his work over the past several years to make cancer drugs more readily available to seriously ill patients—work that has already had a tangible impact that will extend and save lives.

In 2003, Mr. Pollock was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in the editorial writing category for "his clear, compelling editorials on the Food and Drug Administration's delay in approval of new cancer drugs." That same year he won the “Special Media Award for Helping Others” by the Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Development Drugs. In his 10 years with The Wall Street Journal, the Buffalo, NY native has served as an editor and editorial writer in the US and abroad.