UCB scoop ‘Most Valuable Pharma Collaboration’ in a strong showing at the eyeforpharma Barcelona Awards 2016.
UCB added ‘Most Valuable Pharma Collaboration’ to their haul with their Joint Working Agreement to improve Epilepsy Care in National Health Systems.
Having also won the ‘Customer Innovator Award’ with Marianne Fraiture’s hackathon program for service design in Epilepsy, HackEpilepsy, it spoke to the company’s commitment to innovative approaches within this therapeutic area. As UCB also won the Customer Innovator Award and Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2015 eyeforpharma Barcelona Awards, the achievement marks a consecutive double for the company.
Judges were impressed by the depth of the coalition that UCB managed to build with their Joint Working Agreement program, which also involved Epilepsy Scotland, NHS Dumfries & Galloway, GlaxoSmithKline and Eisai Ltd. The project delivered extensive training programmes for Practice Nurses, General Practitioners and Pharmacists to improve the care of epilepsy patients, and also created new educational materials to support them in practice. The programme has also been embraced by Government, with the Ministry of Health recommending national rollout.
The project explicitly sought to address negative preconceptions of pharma that could block collaborations with other stakeholders and succeeded through willingness to place patient groups and care providers at the center of discussion. Guy Armstrong, Healthcare Partnership and Government Affairs Manager at UCB attributed their success to a commitment amongst those involved to approach the collaboration with an open mind. He stated, “The only blocks are age old perceptions, together we can expand what is possible.”
The winning projects were selected from hundreds of initiatives from Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia/Pac, and announced yesterday at the 3rd annual eyeforpharma Barcelona Awards ceremony, determined by an international judging panel of senior industry experts, and patient advocates.
For more information, contact: Emma Goldman, Awards Director egoldman@eyeforpharma.com +44 (0) 207 375 4312