Page 32 - N&V Winter 2019

World Lupus Day

10th May 2019

Idorsia Pharmaceuticals raises lupus awareness

It started out as an idea to help raise awareness about lupus and ended up as one of
Idorsia Pharmaceuticals employees’ favorite events, ever.

Lupus was not a well-known therapeutic World Lupus Day was just one day,
area for most employees at Idorsia. So for however, weeks later we are still receiving
World Lupus Day, the team was very eager feedback from employees who loved the
to help shed light on this often invisible event, especially many who work in non-
disease and to increase awareness. The scientific areas. They really appreciated
idea started as a simple presentation; it that the team and the exhibits explained
churned and grew and took on a life of its the disease in an easy-to-understand
own and we ended up with a huge event, language. One of the best comments was
over an afternoon, spread across three from a researcher who said, "it's hard on
buildings and comprised of four stations has been approved for use in the past 60 most days, when I am focused on heating
with different topics. The employees years to help people living with lupus. up and refining the solutions to a particular
followed butterfly stickers and flitted from degree, to remember that what I am
working on, may in 10-15 years, help a
station to station to learn more about lupus Station three was a huge wall showcasing patient live a better life."
and what we are doing for the patients. our current clinical study for lupus called
Members from our lupus team - a cross- CARE. Members from the CARE team Many of our employees delivered on their
functional group composed of researchers talked about the trial, highlighting the pledge to help raise awareness, either by
to scientists to doctors to marketing - sharing our content on the social media
staffed each station and took on the role channels or by creating their own. Our
of lupus ambassadors with enthusiasm. social media analysis showed that our lupus
awareness efforts made an “impression” on
At station one: living with lupus, employees hundreds of thousands of people! We are
learned about the symptoms of lupus, the happy that our result was not limited to
internal staff but also helped the outreach
on social media.
Raising awareness and the power of being
able to connect the face of a person with
many countries across the globe where it is lupus to the science of drug development
being conducted and what outcomes we are the reasons why we wanted to do this
hope the trial will accomplish. Employees event. Drug development takes a long time,
were very impressed by the enthusiasm from the inception of an idea to the
from the team and enjoyed learning about realization of a medication, and this event
how we hope to achieve our end points helped cement the importance of what we,
typical patient demographic, and how the as a company do every day, even if the
disease can present in different ways. We with this study. results can be years down the line.
asked the employees to look at the world The last station was about how our investi-
from the view of a patient and to sign pledge gational therapy works. Scientists from the From all of us at Idorsia, we want to thank
cards to further raise awareness for lupus. team explained, for employees with Helga, Amy, Kim, Annie, Sara, Vanisha,
Jade, and Sarah for volunteering for the
different levels of immunology
With the help of LUPUS UK, we met eight understanding, how an autoimmune disease photoshoot and sharing
people living with lupus who volunteered to like lupus mistakenly attacks its own body's their stories, and a special
take part in a photoshoot and to share thank you to Paul for
their experiences of living with lupus. These organizing and helping us
photos and stories became the centerpiece connect with them. We will
of station two, the gallery. The photos were be honoring our pledge to
on easels accompanied by a gallery continue to raising
booklet that told the story of each person. awareness for lupus in the coming months.
Follow Idorsia on social media to see our
Accompanying the gallery exhibit we had efforts and maybe spot a familiar face.
two posters that outlined the history of
lupus, dating back to 460BC to the modern www.facebook.com/idorsia/
medical landscape for the treatment of this https://twitter.com/Idorsia
disease. It came as a quite a surprise to tissues and how our Claire McGeown
268C investigational therapy
many employees that only one medication potentially could help. Senior Director Life Cycle Leader
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luPus uK NEWS & VIEWS SUMMER 2019