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Leader Perspectives

Showcasing Jazz’s Commitment to the Epilepsy Community

 
Bruce Cozadd

Since Jazz was founded almost 20 years ago, our purpose—which is to innovate, to transform the lives of patients and their families—shapes and guides the decisions we make. We believe all people, particularly those with difficult, complex conditions like epilepsy, deserve to live their lives as fully as possible. That is why Jazz recognizes the significance of National Epilepsy Awareness Month (NEAM), which marks an important moment in time to raise awareness for epilepsy patients, their caregivers, family members and loved ones.

Epilepsy can have significant, life-altering implications for patients. Currently, there is a large unmet patient need, as approximately 1 million people living with epilepsy are resistant to current treatments, with an estimated 160,000 of those patients being pediatric patients.1,2

However, we also understand it’s not just the person living with the epilepsy that’s impacted by the disease. It is everyone around them, in different ways. For example, caregiving can place a significant emotional and financial strain on the families of individuals living with severe forms of epilepsy. So, we make sure that as part of our effort to address this unmet patient need, we are continuously striving to understand what our patients, their families, and their caregivers go through. The better we understand, the more it helps inform us on how we can enhance our clinical trials, generate new medications, and expand options for people living with epilepsy, and even improve outcomes.

I’m proud to share that during NEAM and beyond, Jazz is committed to listening to patients, their care teams, advocacy groups, and leading industry experts to better understand the needs of the epilepsy community, so we can more comprehensively support those who need it. We do this with the knowledge that, with every decision we make, we can improve a person’s physical, emotional and mental well-being—and even change the trajectory of their life. It has been truly inspiring to be part of a team who is dedicated to create more innovative and improved options to transform the lives of the epilepsy community.

This NEAM, join all of us here at Jazz to help raise awareness of epilepsy and make a greater impact on the epilepsy community. Also, follow along on Jazz’s Twitter and LinkedIn channels to learn more about how we’re supporting NEAM this year.

References:

  1. Zack MM, Kobau R. National and state estimates of the numbers of adults and children with active epilepsy — United States, 2015. MMWR. 2017;66:821–825. DOI: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6631a1.
  2. Epilepsy Foundation. Drug-Resistant Epilepsy. Available at: https://www.epilepsy.com/learn/drug-resistant-epilepsy. Accessed October 2022.