SK Life Science debuts Xcopri virtual effort for HCPs to empathize with seizure patients' experiences

SK Life Science is inviting healthcare providers to literally put themselves in the shoes of patients with seizures—well, in a virtual way.

The company's immersive “Step into Their Shoes” experience, which debuted at the American Epilepsy Society (AES) annual meeting earlier this month, brings users into the lives of four different patients and their efforts to reduce partial-onset seizures using the company's new drug Xcopri.

Though a microsite, visitors can download information, check out speaker presentations, join a live chat with representatives and see the world through those patients' eyes via immersive video. The four different stories feature one real patient and three who are composites.

One of those people is Matt, featured in the virtual story “A Fighter’s Journey." Matt, who had his first seizure at age 13, talks about his experiences with as many as 24 seizures a year before starting on Xcopri. Since then, he’s had zero.

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“We want to make sure that healthcare providers, whether they're nurse practitioners, physician assistants, epileptologists or neurologists, really gain a greater appreciation for what it's like to walk in the shoes of an adult patient with partial onset seizures,” Jeffrey Crowther, SK Life Science's vice president of sales and marketing, said.

SK's anti-seizure med Xcopri was approved by the FDA in November 2019 after a decade in the works. The company’s first approved drug, Xcopri, launched in May despite the pandemic. 

The drug was too important to delay, Crowther said, because it reaches an “unmet need” for people with partial-onset seizures. In Xcopri trials, 1 in 5 patients reached a zero seizure benchmark.

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One bright spot to the epilepsy society conference being held as virtual event is that SK gets to keep its booth open with AES online for the next few months, possibly until March, rather than just for the duration of the conference itself.

SK is planning other outreach for the campaign, too, including banner ads and follow-up emails that will invite people to “Step into Xcopri." While the current effort is aimed at healthcare providers, SK also hopes to push the information out to advocacy groups, patients and caregivers.