Commentary: Wayne Fenton's Impact on Industry

Abstract

Wayne Fenton's vision for people with serious mental illnesses was deep and inspiring. He was fiercely committed to improvements in patient care and management so that persons with these disorders could be fully functioning members of society. Fenton was wise enough to recognize that he could not accomplish these goals alone and understood that persistent work with many different stakeholders was necessary. His skill was to bring these diverse groups together so that their wisdom and resources could be pooled in synergistic ways. A major focus of his vision was the recognition of the substantial unmet medical need related to schizophrenia and the urgent need for novel therapeutics to treat this illness. In order to accomplish this goal, he recognized that a new kind of partnership between academia, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and industry was needed. This partnership must be built on inclusion, mutual respect, and synergism. Each stakeholder would contribute their area of expertise to the common goal of improving the lives of persons with severe mental illness.