AZ/Daiichi Sankyo create Japan iPhone app for acid reflux
pharmafile | September 19, 2013 | News story | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | AstraZeneca, Daiichi Sankyo, Japan, Nexium, app, iphone
AstraZeneca and partner Daiichi Sankyo are launching a new iPhone app to educate the public about reflux esophagitis through a campaign entitled “Do you experience heartburn or acid reflux?”
The disease awareness campaign will look at helping the Japanese public understand the symptoms of reflux esophagitis and how they affect the daily lives of patients.
The campaign incorporates a variety of media featuring TV commercials and a website to encourage patients to seek the appropriate treatment and ‘take control of their lives’, according to the firms.
In conjunction with this campaign, Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca have launched the new “Heartburn/Acid Reflux Notebook” iPhone app, which features a variety of functions to help patients relieve their symptoms. The app is currently only available in Japanese.
In 2010 AstraZeneca signed a $100 million deal with Daiichi Sankyo for the co-promotion and supply of its proton pump inhibitor Nexium, licensed for gastroesophageal reflux disease, in Japan. The drug was once AZ’s biggest selling before succumbing to generic erosion in certain markets, making over $5 billion in peak annual sales.
But Nexium still has a long patent life in Japan as it was only approved there several years ago, meaning the firms are still keen to market the drug to help shore up loss sales from other countries.
Japan’s recent shift towards a Western diet and lowered incidence of helicobacter pylori infection have resulted in increased levels of acid secretion and reflux esophagitis sufferers are thought to be on the rise.
Reflux esophagitis is a disease in which inflammation of the oesophageal membrane occurs when stomach contents, including the highly acidic hydrochloric acid (gastric acid), are regurgitated.
The main symptoms of the disease include heartburn and acid reflux (an acidic taste in the throat and mouth, accompanied by a feeling that the contents of the stomach are being regurgitated).
The Japanese Society of Gastroenterology’s 2009 GERD treatment guidelines state that one or more instances of symptoms per week have a negative effect on QOL, and that the ultimate goal is to relieve symptoms completely.
Ben Adams
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