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Venebio Chief Medical Officer Presents at 2011 ESPACOMP Symposium

RICHMOND, VA, December 9, 2011 – Barbara K. Zedler, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Venebio Group, LLC was an invited presenter at the 2011 European Symposium on Patient Adherence, Compliance and Persistence (ESPACOMP) held in Utrecht, The Netherlands, November 18 and 19.

ESPACOMP is a non-profit association established to promote the science concerned with quantitative assessment of what patients do with prescribed medications. ESPACOMP has sponsored an annual symposium since 1996 for international adherence researchers, pharmacoepidemiologists, statisticians, and the pharmaceutical industry to share their research on patient compliance and persistence with prescribed therapy.

The main objective of the annual ESPACOMP symposium is the translation of adherence research into useful information and interventions that help patients, healthcare providers and healthcare policymakers improve patients’ adherence to taking medications as prescribed. Medication-taking is a complex, multidimensional behavior, but the most common reason patients give for not taking their medications is forgetfulness.

The World Health Organization has recognized that poor adherence to treatments of chronic diseases is a worldwide problem of striking magnitude. Medication non-adherence leads to unnecessary disease progression and complications, avoidable hospitalizations, premature disability, a lower quality of life, and even death. The cost burden to the US healthcare system from worse healthcare outcomes resulting from poor medication adherence is nearly $300 billion per year, or 13% of total US healthcare spending.

Dr. Zedler was invited to ESPACOMP to share the results of Venebio Group’s research about the impact on adherence of simple ‘reminder packaging’ of medication, ranging from compartmentalized calendar pill boxes to calendar blister packaging such as that used since the 1960s for birth control pills. Venebio’s systematic review of the published world scientific literature revealed that calendar packaging, especially in combination with patient education and other reminder strategies, may improve medication adherence. Venebio then conducted a pharmacoepidemiologic analysis of the effect of Shellpak®, calendar blister packaging designed by the Healthcare Division of MeadWestvaco Corporation to improve medication adherence over traditional loose pills in bottles. Retrospective pharmacy dispensing data were analyzed for about 3.1 million individuals filling prescriptions for common blood pressure medications in a discount generic drug program at US Walmart Stores. The use of medication packaged in Shellpak® was associated with modestly improved prescription refill rates compared with loose pills in bottles.

Dr. Zedler noted that, “Most significantly, the greatest benefit in refill behavior with the Shellpak® calendar blister packaging occurred in precisely those individuals who needed it most: new daily medication users and individuals with the poorest refill levels when using pill bottles. The next steps are to evaluate whether there is clinical impact associated with the improvement in refilling medications, such as better blood pressure control, and whether adding other simple adherence interventions to the reminder packaging, such as patient education, further helps individuals to take medication as prescribed.”

The research was published in the May issue of Clinical Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, and was funded by MWV Healthcare, Inc.

For more information on Venebio’s research, please contact Venebio Group at info@venebio.com.

About Venebio: Venebio (www.venebio.com ) is a privately held contract research organization (CRO) that provides cost-effective, custom solutions for complex life sciences problems. Venebio integrates the expertise of a global network of scientists across a broad range of biomedical fields to deliver comprehensive project management with single-point accountability in the following areas: Molecular and genetic epidemiology; Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance; Epidemiologic literature review and analysis; Biomarker discovery, development and validation; Bioinformatics, systems biology, and statistical genetics; Pharmacogenomics (PGx) and personalized medicine; Clinical Trial design and analysis support; and Intellectual property consulting. Venebio clients include pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology and medical device companies, healthcare organizations, academic research centers, law firms, government entities and NGOs. Venebio is a member of the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park in Richmond, Virginia and was selected as a 2010 Greater Richmond Area Company to Watch. For more information about Venebio, email us at info@venebio.com or call 877-344-4347.

About MeadWestvaco: MeadWestvaco Corporation (NYSE: MWV), provides packaging solutions to many of the world’s most- admired brands in the healthcare, beauty and personal care, food, beverage, home and garden, and tobacco industries. The company's businesses also include Consumer & Office Products, Specialty Chemicals, and the Community Development and Land Management Group, which sustainably manages the company’s land holdings to support its operations, and to provide for conservation, recreation and development opportunities. With 19,000 employees worldwide, MWV operates in 30 countries and serves customers in more than 100 nations. MWV manages all of its forestlands in accordance with internationally recognized forest certification standards, and has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for seven consecutive years. For more information, please visit www.mwv.com.