WASHINGTON, Feb. 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Kids v Cancer received honors from Fast Company as #4 of the Top 10 Most Innovative Companies of 2016 in Not-For-Profit, joining other honorees including Black Lives Matter, 92^nd St Y, Humans Of New York and UNICEF. Last year, the organization received the 2015 Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation.

Fast Company praised Kids v Cancer for accelerating the discovery of pediatric cancer treatments.  The list can be found at: http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies/sectors/not-for-profit.

Through the Creating Hope Act, Kids v Cancer has mobilized almost $1 billion for research and development of drugs for seriously ill children. With the valuation of a Creating Hope Act pediatric priority review voucher reaching $350 million, biotech and pharmaceutical companies are now embracing business plans built around pediatric rare disease drug development.

In 2012, Kids v Cancer developed and successfully advocated for passage of the Creating Hope Act, which creates priority review vouchers as incentives for drug development for seriously ill kids. Under the Act, sponsors who receive FDA approval for new drugs for seriously ill children, including children with cancer, receive a fully tradable voucher. The voucher provides the holder the rights to faster FDA review on any other drug.

Academic pediatric researchers report that they are seeing dramatic increases in pediatric cancer drug development, and pharmaceutical executives who run pediatric programs report that their companies are now more invested in the development pediatric cancer drugs.

"We are honored to receive this award," stated Nancy Goodman, Executive Director of Kids v Cancer. "I started Kids v Cancer seven years ago after my 10 year old son, Jacob Froman, died of a pediatric cancer. The drugs with which he was treated were 40 years old. I hope this award will bring support to Kids v Cancer so that other children with cancer do not suffer Jacob's fate."

Other Kids v Cancer programs include:

• The KIDS Initiative to update the Pediatric Research Equity Act (PREA) so that companies developing drugs for adult cancers must also develop the drugs for children, as the Act requires for other illnesses.
• The Compassionate Use Navigator to assist physicians and families of children with cancer in applying for compassionate use access to unapproved drugs.
• An autopsy tissue donation program for post mortem pediatric CNS tumor tissue.

SOURCE Kids v Cancer