Boehringer Ingelheim has launched a new online portal to help improve the lives of those living with the hepatitis C virus.
The site – HepCRedefined.com – aims to “redefine the HCV journey” according to BI, by providing downloadable and shareable resources to healthcare providers, advocates, caregivers and patients.
Boehringer is currently developing a new hep C candidate, and at the weekend it announced that a late-stage clinical trial of the experimental drug would begin, following promising results from earlier studies.
The site’s purpose is to raise awareness about hep C and it treatments, as well as to help patients by offering tips and tools to facilitate discussion about the disease.
It includes a video series for healthcare providers offering tips on support sources, clinic programme highlights and patient diaries, as well as an interactive checklist tool to help patients manage considerations of being in care and getting ready for treatment.
Michael Ninburg, executive director of the Hepatitis Education Project, who helped create the site, said: “The entire HCV community is in need of simple tools and resources to talk about the disease in an informed, supportive way. There is information about HCV across the web, but HepCRedefined.com is designed to aggregate straightforward and accurate information in a single virtual destination.
“I’m proud to have contributed to the development of HepCRedefined.com and look forward to working with other advocates to reach communities nationwide,” he added.
Steve Smith, VP of established brands at Boehringer’s pharmaceuticals unit, said: “Boehringer Ingelheim understands that the HCV journey can be a difficult process for patients, caregivers, healthcare providers and advocates alike. Through our work with the HCV community to develop HepCRedefined.com, we hope to offer support to the many individuals impacted by HCV with useful information and interactive resources that are easy to find.”
The privately owned German firm has form when it comes to digital projects, and were one of the first pharma companies on Twitter, and has also recently launched Syrum, the first marketing game to be used by the industry.
Janssen’s hep C community
This is not pharma’s first digital foray for hepatitis C as Janssen, creator of the new oral hep C drug Incivo, also has an online resource tool for hep C patients, available at http://www.HelpEveryPersonC.co.uk/, which was launched last year as a community page for those with the disease.
