The World Heart Federation, sanofi-aventis and Boehringer Ingelheim Announce Collaboration on Worldwide AF Awareness Campaign

GENEVA, February 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The World Heart Federation, sanofi-aventis and Boehringer Ingelheim have announced their collaboration on the AF AWARE (Atrial Fibrillation AWareness And Risk Education) campaign today, to raise awareness of atrial fibrillation (AF) and its links to severe consequences including cardiovascular (CV) mortality, stroke and CV hospitalizations. The campaign aims to promote education around the risks associated with AF as well as highlight the importance of early diagnosis and comprehensive management to maximize patient outcomes.

"AF is a growing public health issue, affecting not only the patients who live with the condition, but also their families and the healthcare systems in the countries where they live. Yet research shows there is a perceived lack of awareness and understanding of this condition," said Johanna Ralston, Chief Executive Officer, World Heart Federation. "The AF AWARE campaign was established to specifically address the lack of awareness and endeavours to draw attention to this serious, chronic, disease, the consequences of which can have devastating effects on patients and healthcare systems."

"Despite the fact that the complications of AF can be severe, for many people living with AF, the condition has very little noticeable impact on their lives, and in some cases goes undiagnosed and untreated, resulting in strokes that could be prevented. Up to three million people worldwide suffer strokes related to AF each year, with half of patients dying within 12 months," said Klaus Dugi, Corporate Senior Vice President Medicine, Boehringer Ingelheim. "We are delighted to support the AF AWARE campaign in 2011, as it is critical that effective action is taken now for individuals living with AF and their families, to ensure the optimal management of the condition, reducing the number of strokes related to AF."

A recent report found that the lives of thousands of people living with AF could be at risk due to delay in time to diagnosis, poor adherence to treatment guidelines and lack of information for patients suffering from this debilitating heart condition.[1] People living with AF have a lower quality of life than healthy individuals,[2],[3] as AF is also frequently associated with multiple CV co-morbidities which can adversely affect a patient's long-term outcomes. AF carries a four-to five-fold increased risk of stroke and is associated with a high risk of CV events [3] and hospitalization. Using data from 10,000 AF patients, the REALISE AF registry showed that about 29per cent of AF patients had a CV event leading to unplanned hospitalization in the last 12 months.[4]

"Atrial fibrillation is a major cause of morbidity and mortality which contributes to a substantial public health burden" said Nazira Amra, M.D., Associate Vice President, Global Anti-Arrhythmics Strategy, sanofi-aventis. "Sanofi-aventis has been supporting AF AWARE since its inception and we are delighted to continue this global initiative in collaboration with the World Heart Federation and Boehringer Ingelheim in order to raise AF awareness and promote better access to information for patients, their caregivers and health care providers."

The World Heart Federation will lead the initiative internationally and will also work closely with SAFE (Stroke Alliance for Europe) and the Atrial Fibrillation Association (AFA), to deliver the programme. Agreements have been established with sanofi-aventis and Boehringer Ingelheim for a co-sponsorship.

The activities of the AF AWARE campaign are supported by funding from both sanofi-aventis and Boehringer Ingelheim.

Notes to Editor

About Atrial Fibrillation (AF)

AF results from abnormal electrical activity in the upper chambers of the heart (atria), leading to an irregular heart rhythm which prevents the blood from efficiently being pumped toward the rest of the body.[5] Common symptoms of AF include palpitations (a rapid, irregular, "flopping" movement or pounding sensation in the chest), shortness of breath, dizziness and feeling of heaviness in the chest.[6] Age, obesity, hypertension, myocardial infarction (MI), congestive heart failure (CHF) and valvular heart diseases [7] put patients at increased risk of developing AF and AF itself worsens the prognosis of patients with risk factors for cardiovascular diseases such as stroke or myocardial infarction.[6],[8]

About the AF AWARE campaign

The AF AWARE (Atrial Fibrillation AWareness And Risk Education) campaign dedicated to gaining greater recognition of atrial fibrillation (AF) as a major international public health concern through exposing current misperceptions of the condition and focusing attention on the realities of the disease. The campaign calls for urgent steps to be taken to improve the diagnosis and care of patients with AF and the prevention of associated cardiovascular conditions. AF AWARE was launched in 2009 by the World Heart Federation, the Stroke Alliance For Europe, the Atrial Fibrillation Association and the European Heart Rhythm Association. Initially supported by a sponsorship from sanofi-aventis, it is now also supported by Boehringer Ingelheim.

About the World Heart Federation

The World Heart Federation is dedicated to leading the global fight against heart disease and stroke with a focus on low- and middle-income countries via a united community of more than 200 member organizations. With its members, the World Heart Federation works to build global commitment to addressing cardiovascular health at the policy level, generates and exchanges ideas, shares best practice, advances scientific knowledge and promotes knowledge transfer to tackle cardiovascular disease - the world's number one killer. It is a growing membership organization that brings together the strength of medical societies and heart foundations from more than 100 countries. Through our collective efforts we can help people all over the world to lead longer and better heart-healthy lives. http://www.worldheart.org

About sanofi-aventis

Sanofi-aventis, a leading global pharmaceutical company, discovers, develops and distributes therapeutic solutions to improve the lives of everyone. Sanofi-aventis is listed in Paris (EURONEXT: SAN) and in New York (NYSE: SNY). For more information, please visit http://www.sanofi-aventis.com.

About Boehringer Ingelheim

The Boehringer Ingelheim group is one of the world's 20 leading pharmaceutical companies. Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, it operates globally with 142 affiliates in 50 countries and more than 41,500 employees. Since it was founded in 1885, the family-owned company has been committed to researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing novel products of high therapeutic value for human and veterinary medicine. In 2009, Boehringer Ingelheim posted net sales of 12.7 billion euro while spending 21% of net sales in its largest business segment Prescription Medicines on research and development.

Boehringer Ingelheim is committed to improving cardiovascular health worldwide through research into cardiovascular disease and the development of new treatments in the area as well as by raising awareness of cardiovascular health conditions such as atrial fibrillation. In addition to partnering in the AF AWARE campaign, Boehringer Ingelheim launched 1 Million 1 Million - Getting to the Heart of Stroke (http://www.heartofstroke.com) in 2010, a global disease awareness initiative that aims to prevent as many as 1 million atrial fibrillation-related strokes.

For more information about Boehringer Ingelheim, please visit http://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com.

References

[1] Barham, L. Atrial Fibrillation in Europe: How AWARE are you?, November 2010, last accessed http://www.world-heart-federation.org/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/AF-Awar e/AFAwareReport23nov2010.pdf, 09.02.11

[2] Dorian P et al. The impairment of health-related quality of life in patients with intermittent atrial fibrillation: implications for the assessment of investigational therapy JACC, 2000;36:1303-1309. Last accessed at: http://content.onlinejacc.org/cgi/reprint/36/4/1303.pdf, 07.02.2011

[3] PA Wolf, RD Abbott and WB Kannel. Atrial fibrillation as an independent risk factor for stroke: the Framingham Study. Stroke 1991;22;983-988. Last accessed: http://stroke.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/22/8/983, 07.02.2011

[4] Steg G. Realise AF cross sectional registry. ESC 2010, Last accessed http://spo.escardio.org/eslides/view.aspx?eevtid=40&fp=5080, 09.02.11

[5] The Task Force for the Management of Atrial Fibrillation of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), Guidelines for the management of atrial fibrillation, European Heart Journal (2010) 31, 2369-2429. URL: http://www.escardio.org/guidelines-

[6] Benjamin E.J. et al., Impact of Atrial Fibrillation on the Risk of Death: The Framingham Heart Study. Circulation 1998;98:946-952

[7] Benjamin E.J. et al., Prevention of atrial fibrillation: report from a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute workshop. Circulation 2009;119(4): 606-618

[8] Wachtell, K. et al., Angiotensin II receptor blockade reduces new-onset atrial fibrillation and subsequent stroke compared to atenolol, Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2005;45(5):712-719

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