AbbVie is going back to school to support patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), enrolling “Abbott Elementary” star Tyler James Williams for a new campaign aimed at sparking deeper conversations about long-term IBD treatment goals.
IBD includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, both of which cause inflammation in the digestive tract and can lead to symptoms like diarrhea, abdominal pain, weight loss, fatigue and more. AbbVie sells blockbuster drugs Skyrizi and Rinvoq, among others, to treat IBD.
The unbranded “Beyond a Gut Feeling” initiative is designed to encourage IBD patients to work with their doctors to prioritize long-term treatment goals. To that end, the campaign’s website includes information about endoscopic improvement, in which damage to the intestinal lining is visibly reduced, in comparison to a focus solely on treating immediate symptoms.
The site highlights how taking a long-term approach to IBD treatment can ultimately help slow disease progression, improve symptom control and lessen IBD’s impact on patients’ daily lives.
A campaign video features Williams talking about how he spent the five years after his first Crohn’s disease flare-up “in and out of hospitals” as he focused only on treating symptoms, rather than the underlying condition.
“I had this understanding of it as something that was inconvenient, but not something that needed to be taken seriously from a health point of view,” he said.
It took “a year of non-movement” to force him to finally take it seriously, and he’s now been in remission for at least two years, Williams said, adding, “IBD is a lifelong journey. Symptom management is important for feeling better, but it does not change the course of the disease.”
During a virtual event to kick off the campaign last week, Williams participated in a discussion with gastroenterologist Sophie Balzora, M.D., who he described as “the first gastro to really get me to take this seriously.”
“She was the inspiration for getting my symptoms in check—not just by way of education, but giving me a forecasting of where I was headed toward and how seriously I needed to take this,” Williams said. “A lot of times, it’s hard to see past the moment that you’re in right now, and that’s when really good medical professionals can shed light on not only your situation currently, but what it could actually end up being.”
When asked what advice he’d offer to patients undergoing a similar journey to his, the actor said, “Just because you’ve been living this way doesn’t mean it has to be this way,” advising anyone struggling to manage their IBD to seek out a good gastroenterologist to discuss long-term treatment goals.