Patients are at the heart of everything we do at UCB. This mission is what inspired me to join UCB in 2020 to lead U.S. Immunology Patient Strategy, where I’m focused on ensuring a smooth journey for people living with chronic inflammatory diseases as they access UCB therapies. 

Since starting at UCB, I’ve had the privilege of working with an incredibly dedicated team. Together, we focus on hearing firsthand from people living with these severe diseases, and we embed these insights to shape everything we do. Whether educating patients about their disease, developing and delivering meaningful patient support programs, or creating a personalized treatment experience, we want people with chronic inflammatory diseases to be able to live their best possible lives. As we embrace the new year ahead of us, our commitment to these patients guides our work. 

Ensuring access to new treatment options 

Over the past year, UCB has made incredible progress across immunology, particularly with treatment options for people living with psoriasis. 

But our work cannot and does not stop with developing treatments. We know that empowering patients means ensuring they have support to access and afford new medications. We have built a comprehensive suite of support services, based on our experiences with patients and feedback from the dermatologic community, to help us respond to specific needs throughout the patient journey.

My colleagues and I have also been working with advocates, payers, and the broader immunology community to ensure timely and affordable access to our medicines for all people who need them, in a way that is sustainable for patients, society, and UCB. 

Providing educational resources to the patient community 

From our ongoing work with the dermatologic community, it is increasingly clear that those impacted by chronic inflammatory diseases are seeking more information about the conditions they live with and how to best manage them every day.

We remain focused on providing resources that address this need for information and raise awareness of these severe diseases. In order to do so, we prioritize developing initiatives and sharing resources that help people living with dermatologic conditions to feel empowered to have discussions with their healthcare teams about their care plan. For example, earlier this month, the National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) launched a podcast on the importance of shared decision-making between care teams and patients. The podcast, sponsored by UCB, touches on the importance of having HCPs and patients make care and treatment decisions together and encourages shared discussions to help patients understand their treatment options.

Those impacted by these severe diseases are dedicated to finding the best resources available for treatments and support, as are we at UCB. I am confident that with the innovations and resources now available and on the horizon, there is more reason than ever for this community to feel hopeful in 2024.