Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc and the American College of Chest Physicians (Chest) have announced a strategic initiative focused on increasing recognition that the way a medicine is delivered should be an important consideration in evaluating a patient’s COPD therapy. As a part of this collaboration, the organizations have launched the Delivery Makes a Difference initiative, which seeks to understand patient and health care provider practices and to provide tools for matching patients with appropriate medications and delivery devices.
The initiative began in August 2016 by assembling a steering committee of nationally recognized COPD thought leaders. These thought leaders collaborated to design a landmark survey of 1,000 patients and health care providers to assess drug and device prescription habits and perception disparities between patients and health care providers.
“When first-line treatments fail to achieve their desired effect, health care providers often prescribe additional medications, failing to consider that the way the medicine has been delivered may be a significant issue,” said Dr. Nicola Hanania, Chair of the Delivery Makes a Difference Steering Committee, Associate Professor at Baylor College of Medicine. “The Delivery Makes a Difference initiative hopes to provide important data to support the crucial step of choosing appropriate delivery devices for individual patients.”
A program overview of the Delivery Makes a Difference initiative will be presented at the CHEST 2016 Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, including partnership objectives and survey methodology. The session, entitled “COPD: Delivery Makes A Difference” is scheduled for October 24 at 10 a.m. PST in The Los Angeles Convention Center, Room 405.
“The American College of Chest Physicians believes that a comprehensive approach to the patient’s needs is essential to optimal treatment of COPD,” said John Alexander, MD, MBA, FCCP, President of Chest Enterprises. “Great patient care extends beyond the molecule, considering patient ability, delivery systems and ongoing doctor/patient communication.”
“Sunovion is proud to be working with Chest to facilitate this important discussion with health care providers and patients about the role of delivery devices for COPD medications,” said Antony Loebel, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Sunovion. “We look forward to sharing the data from this survey with health care providers and to providing meaningful educational programs for patients.”
