NORGINE AND EUROPEAN LIVER PATIENTS ASSOCIATION (ELPA) ANNOUNCE PUBLICATION THAT ADVANCES THE UNDERSTANDING OF HEPATIC ENCEPHALOPATHY

LONDON, UK, Tuesday 3 May 2016, 07:00 GMT+1 – Norgine B.V. and ELPA today announced that they have achieved a significant milestone by publishing Hepatic encephalopathy: a call to action to optimize patient outcomes in Digestive and Liver Disease. This publication advances the understanding of hepatic encephalopathy and highlights the need to raise awareness of hepatic encephalopathy among the public and to improve the quality of care for patients.[1]
 

De Gottardi A, et al. Hepatic encephalopathy: A call to action to optimize patient outcomes. Dig Liver Dis (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dld.2016.03.030
 

The publication highlights the Time to DeLiver: Getting a Grip on HE campaign that aims to drive change in the management of hepatic encephalopathy. It calls for the inclusion of hepatic encephalopathy within public-facing information, improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of hepatic encephalopathy, the provision of quality of care for patients, and that the patient’s voice should be heard on a national and European level. The barriers to the effective management of patients with hepatic encephalopathy were identified and 10 ‘calls to action’ were developed for healthcare systems to address these barriers.
 

Tatjana Reic, President, ELPA commented “This publication challenges the need to further understand hepatic encephalopathy and most importantly will help increase national health care systems understanding of this debilitating disease. Hopefully this will bring us a step closer to ensure that patients receive more effective care and treatments.”
 

Hepatic encephalopathy is a potentially life-threatening neuropsychiatric condition associated with liver disease. Hepatic encephalopathy affects approximately 200,000 people in Europe who suffer from advanced chronic liver disease.[2]^,[3] Hepatic encephalopathy remains underdiagnosed and under-treated, resulting in poor quality of life for patients and high burden on their carers, families and society.
 

Ends

GL/COR/0416/0143
April 2016

Notes to Editors

About Time to DeLiver
The Time to DeLiver Getting a Grip on HE report can be read in full on the ELPA website.

About ELPA

ELPA's aim is to promote the interests of people with liver disease and in particular:

• to highlight the size of the problem;
• to promote awareness and prevention;
• to address the low profile of liver disease as compared to other areas of medicine such as heart disease;
• to share experience of successful initiatives;
• to work with professional bodies such as EASL and with the EU to ensure that treatment and care are harmonised across Europe to the highest standards.

ELPA emerged from a desire amongst European liver patient groups to share their experiences of the often very different approaches adopted in different countries. In June 2004, 13 patient groups from 10 European and Mediterranean Basin countries met to create the association. ELPA was formally launched in Paris on April 14th 2005 during the annual conference of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) and now has 35 members from 27 countries.

About Norgine

Norgine is a European specialist pharmaceutical company that has been established for over 100 years. In 2015, Norgine’s total revenue was EUR 320 million and the company employs over 1,000 people.

Norgine provides expertise and ‘know how’ in Europe to develop, manufacture and market products that offer real value to healthcare professionals, payers and patients.  Norgine’s approach and infrastructure is integrated and focused upon ensuring that Norgine wins partnership opportunities for growth.

Norgine is headquartered in the Netherlands and its global operations are based in Amsterdam and in Harefield, UK. Norgine owns a R&D site in Hengoed, Wales and two manufacturing sites, one in Hengoed, Wales and one in Dreux, France.

For more information, please visit www.norgine.com

In 2012, Norgine established a complementary business Norgine Ventures, supporting innovative healthcare companies through the provision of debt-like financing in Europe and the US. For more information, please visit www.norgineventures.com.

NORGINE and the sail logo are trademarks of the Norgine group of companies.

Media Contacts:

Norgine
Isabelle Jouin, T: +44 (0)1895 453643
Charlotte Andrews, T: +44 (0)1895 453607
Follow us @Norgine

ELPA

Thomas Szekely, M: +32 2 880 4349

Follow us @HepatitisEurope

References