August is Psoriasis Awareness Month, and the Global Healthy Living Foundation is pulling out all the stops to put the spotlight on the skin condition. A new collaboration with Amgen is aimed at helping patients access drugs.
The New York-based foundation, which has a host of pharma partners including the likes of AbbVie, Pfizer, Novartis, GSK, Horizon, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Lundbeck and many more, is running a new awareness project called Psoriasis: An Inside Out Disease.
The campaign, which was created with Amgen's support, is set up to help educate both the newly diagnosed as well as those who have been living with psoriasis for a long time about what to expect from the disease. It also “provides tools they can bring to the doctor’s office to ensure they get their questions answered,” according to a press release.
The main purpose behind the campaign is to help patients find drug options for their condition. The foundation’s partner for the campaign, Amgen, sells major immunology blockbuster Otezla, which is approved for plaque psoriasis and made $2.25 billion last year. Neither the Foundation, Amgen nor the education campaign are however promoting any pharma branded drugs.
And it’s not just Amgen. Many of the foundation’s partners market drugs for psoriasis and certain forms of arthritis, and the foundation also runs awareness campaigns for them including AbbVie’s Skyrizi and Humira, Janssen’s Tremfya and Novartis’ Cosentyx.
The foundation also has an education module that walks people step-by-step through the process of working with a specialty pharmacy. This is how many people access psoriasis meds like Otezla when their treatment pathway winds from a topical cream to an oral medication and later an injectable/infused medication.
Patients can visit the new, dedicated Inside Out Disease website and download question guides for their doctors, as well as read articles and watch videos featuring psoriasis patients and medical experts. The site was created with support from Amgen. Content related to this sponsorship was independently developed by GHLF.
The foundation also publishes a podcast series called Getting Clear on Psoriasis and recently devoted its monthly #CreakyChats on Twitter to raising awareness and reducing stigma on psoriasis.
“We spoke with dedicated dermatologists, rheumatologists, primary care doctors, specialty pharmacists and many psoriasis patients to develop content and tools to help guide our members during crucial parts of their psoriasis journey,” said Seth Ginsberg, president and co-founder of the Global Healthy Living Foundation, in the release.
“With decades of experience supporting people living with chronic disease, we leaned in on why starting (and staying on) treatment matters for a person’s physical, mental, emotional and social health—and how to make your specialty pharmacists reliable partners in your care team. We want every person with psoriasis to manage it from the inside out.”