Despite the tremendous advances in psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis treatment over the past decade, many people still face challenges when managing their disease. What’s more, according to Amgen’s global Understanding Psoriatic Disease Leveraging Insights for Treatment (UPLIFT) survey, people living with psoriatic disease continue to be undertreated.
To address this, Amgen is partnering with the International Foundation of Psoriasis Associations (IFPA) to launch the UPLIFT Innovation Challenge, a new initiative aiming to make a big impact by developing actionable solutions to address a challenge that the psoriatic disease community and their healthcare providers continue to face. Applicants are invited to submit innovative ideas that address the following question:
The Challenge Question
How can we unite people living with psoriatic disease and their healthcare providers to achieve optimal health outcomes?
Engaging Patient Organizations Worldwide To Bridge the Gap
Patient organizations work every day to improve the lives of people living with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, providing them with resources, tools and much-needed support. By encouraging patient organizations from around the world to participate in the challenge, Amgen hopes to inspire these groups to translate their insights into actionable solutions to help patients and their healthcare providers come together to achieve their health goals.
“Patient organizations are uniquely positioned to develop innovative and creative solutions as we are already working tirelessly to help improve the lives of people living with psoriatic disease. Patients are the experts. Yet, we often lack the resources to implement our ideas,” explained Frida Dunger Johnsson, Executive Director, IFPA. “IFPA is excited to partner with Amgen on the UPLIFT Innovation Challenge to identify and fund an innovative program that truly has the potential to make an impact in our community.”
Translating Innovative Thinking into Actionable Solutions
The UPLIFT Innovation Challenge will provide a donation or grant of $25,000 USD (or equivalent in local currency)1 to one successful applicant to fund their proposed solution. All submitted applications will be evaluated by a global, multi-disciplinary judging panel consisting of members of the advocacy community, leading medical experts in psoriatic disease and an inspiring patient representative and advocate. The deadline for applications is Monday, August 30, 2021 at 23:59 pm Eastern Daylight Time.
Grounding Our Challenge in Real-World Data
In 2020, Amgen conducted the UPLIFT survey to explore how the attitudes and behaviors of people with psoriasis and/or psoriatic arthritis and their physicians have evolved since the 2012 Multinational Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (MAPP) survey.2
Initial findings from UPLIFT identified a persistent unmet need for people living with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, requiring renewed attention to address two core areas of disconnect.
- Perception of Disease Severity: People living with psoriasis who had limited skin involvement viewed their disease as more severe than how it would be categorized by common measures of disease severity, such as Body Surface Area (BSA).
- Access to Treatment: Despite more available treatment options, a significant proportion of people with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, regardless of disease severity, are still being undertreated or not receiving any treatment.
“The results from the UPLIFT survey reinforce the challenges we’ve seen first-hand through our efforts to support the psoriatic disease community,” explained Dunger Johnsson. “It’s our hope that by elucidating these findings and by calling on patient organizations to take part in this challenge, we’ll foster meaningful dialogue and work toward real change that has the potential to positively impact the groups we work with so closely.”
To learn more about the UPLIFT Innovation Challenge or UPLIFT survey findings, visit UPLIFTInnovationChallenge.com. To learn more about IFPA and their efforts around World Psoriasis Day, which raises awareness of the 125 million people worldwide living with psoriasis, visit: ifpa-pso.com3.- Amgen exercises diligence in ensuring compliance with local law and policy. All patient organizations are strongly encouraged to consult country specific law and compliance guidance before applying as certain countries are unable to receive these types of donations and grants based on local law or policy. Your submission could be impacted by these laws at any time throughout.
- Conducted by Celgene
- National Psoriasis Foundation. Statistics. Available at: https://www.psoriasis.org/content/statistics. Accessed June 7, 2021.
