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The outcome
of Helsinn’s participation at the 6th annual EULAR 2005 Congress
Vienna, 8-11 June, 2005
At the 6th
annual European League Against Rheumatism
(EULAR) congress, held in Vienna, with an estimated attendance of
over 9'000 worldwide delegates, Helsinn was actively present as sponsor of an
exhibition stand and a satellite symposium structured to be an interactive
experts’ debate on the role of NSAIDs in the complex inflammatory pathways on
its products nimesulide and oxaprozin.
The satellite symposium, "Experts’ debate on: Managing inflammation and pain in
the rheumatology patient: identifying the issues, responding to the challenges",
which Helsinn sponsored and organised on Wednesday 8th June, saw the
participation of about 200 specialists from various countries.
This interactive event was skilfully chaired by Prof. Hans G. Kress, Dept. of
Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care B with Pain Center, Medical University/AKH
Vienna, Austria who introduced the speakers and actively drove discussion
through the various sessions.
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After an expert and competent introductory lecture by Prof. H. O. Handwerker,
University of Erlangen, Germany, who highlighted the importance of preventing
peripheral and central prostanoids production to reduce inflammatory pain and
hyperalgesia at peripheral and central level, Prof. Bjarnason, Guy's, King's &
St Thomas' School of Medicine, London, UK, provided an overview on the latest
thinking on the role of COX-1 and COX-2. In particular Prof. Bjarnason,
underlined how the GI safety profile remains the key issue for NSAIDs and
reminded the uncertainty behind the so-called COX dogma according to which COX-1
inhibition accounted for GI side effects and COX-2 inhibition accounted for the
therapeutic effects. In this context, nimesulide, with its preferential
inhibitory action on COX-2 and lack of physicochemical properties that cause the
topical effect, was confirmed to have a vastly improved gastric and small bowel
side effect profile in respect to other conventional NSAIDs.
Prof. F. Dallegri, University of Genova Medical School, Genova, Italy, opened
its speech with the interesting challenge: ‘Are there any differences among
NSAIDs?’, providing evidences on how different pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamic
characteristics may play a key role in the way of action of NSAIDs.
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In particular Prof. Dallegri focused on the mechanisms beyond COXs inhibition
calling the attention on the intrinsic and unique characteristics of both
nimesulide and oxaprozin, with particular reference to the fast onset of action
and favourable inhibitory activity of various mediators of inflammation and
cartilage degradation of nimesulide, and the distinctive mechanism of action of
oxaprozin which is able to reduce the production of pro-inflammatory chemotactic
agents and to induce the apoptosis of monocyte-macrophages, thus favouring the
resolution and termination of inflammatory responses.
Finally Prof. Huskisson, Consultant in Rheumatology, London, UK provided a very
interesting overview of different clinical case scenarios in rheumatoid
arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA), showing how important is to tailor made
the treatment to the needs of patients and after careful evaluation of their
clinical profile. In particular he underlined the efficacy of oxaprozin in the
management of RA with particular reference to its pharmacokinetics and clinical
characteristics.
He also debated the rationale for the use of NSAIDs compared to paracetamol in
the treatment of OA and provided strong evidence for the use of nimesulide in
the treatment of this disease.
Each talk was animated by a lively debate between the audience and the speakers
and a high value involvement and discussion amongst the members of the invited
faculty, skilfully mastered by Prof. Kress, who headed off with a quite
interesting challenge: ’Advance means progress to something better and not
progress to something new!’
The Nimesulide & Oxaprozin booth shared
between Helsinn Healthcare, the world-wide licensor, and CSC, Helsinn’s
marketing partner in Central and Eastern Europe, gave doctors attending the
EULAR congress the opportunity to access new information on the two products and
to meet in a dedicated area, fronted by a water cascade display that contributed
to the strong recognition of the booth among the participants.
Visitors and guests also had the opportunity to challenge their knowledge on
nimesulide and oxaprozin by participating in a dedicated interactive quiz. More
than 250 people took part in the game and to our great satisfaction, many
players demonstrated a solid knowledge on the products.
The best five each day were awarded a copy of the DVD-ROM "Locomotor Apparatus -
Anatomy and Radiology", a brand new tool acquired by Helsinn for distribution at
Eular from Biomedia SA, a Swiss company specialized in the development and
realization of multimedia educational instruments in the field of natural
sciences. This high-quality DVD-ROM considers the locomotor apparatus (bones,
joints and muscles) from an anatomical and radiological point of view. In total,
it contains more than 1,800 illustrated anatomical terms and more than 900
radiological images, some animated and commentated.
The positive results reached with the symposium and exhibition booth at EULAR
2005 contributed to make this event an overall success for Helsinn, its products
and its partners.
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