Horizon Therapeutics is teaming up with Prevent Blindness and a host of other sponsors to challenge 5 million people to get their vision checked before World Sight Day on Oct. 13.
The Prevent Blindness campaign theme is #LoveYourEyes and focuses on the challenges people face if they cannot access or afford eye care.
Horizon, which markets eye disease drug Tepezza is backing the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), which is running the campaign, and are providing free vision screenings and eye health education across the U.S.
These in-person events will take place in various locations including the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 21, Gallagher Way across from Wrigley Field on Sept. 30, and at the state capitol buildings in Atlanta, Austin, Columbus and Raleigh through Oct. 13.
Specifically, at Gallagher Way in Chicago, Horizon and Prevent Blindness will co-sponsor vision screening stations set up around their booth. The mobile exhibit will also travel to Horizon’s Deerfield, Illinois, campus Oct. 4 for an employee vision screening event.
“We are partnering to help the IAB meet its goal of having five million people pledge to have their vision checked before World Sight Day,” Rachel Vann, senior director for product communication at Horizon Therapeutics, told Fierce Pharma Marketing in an interview.
“Prevent Blindness has individually committed to 65,000 vision screenings towards this goal.”
Vann says that the campaign is designed to educate and inspire people to prioritize their eye health and get an eye exam. World Sight Day is meant to empower patients to be better advocates for their health.
The social media components are targeted to the general public because vision loss can affect anyone—either directly or indirectly.
“We are launching a cross-promotional social media campaign with our partners to help reach a wide range of people and maximize impact,” Vann said. The social media content will include a video of Horizon employees across the globe passing a pair of glasses to one another to show the pharma company’s global support of vision health.
Posted on IAPB’s twitter account, @IAPB1, the video is a playful knock off of the TikTok challenge “pass the glass,” which went viral during start of the COVID-19 quarantine days in 2020.
Beyond social media, the Horizon sales force will be armed with physical materials to hand out to doctors who care for patients with vision loss, such as ophthalmologists and neuro-ophthalmologists. The materials include information about World Sight Day and how people can get involved by pledging their own vision screenings on the campaign website.
#LoveYourEyes is the next installment of Horizon Therapeutics many disease awareness campaigns in 2022. Just this past summer, a campaign for thyroid eye disease (TED), featuring “all-star patient advocates” and aimed at boosting awareness of the condition, called out the pharma company’s drug for those with TED, Tepezza.