MEXICO CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With the participation of more than 350 specialist doctors from Latin American countries such as Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Argentina, the second LatAm Ferrer Summit was held in Panama. Experts gave presentations on the main health challenges in the region.
The gathering, organized by international pharmaceutical company Ferrer, gave these professionals an important opportunity to obtain an overview of the latest advances in cardiology, pulmonary vascular and interstitial lung disease, neurology, and gastroenterology, which are key focus areas for the laboratory.
Over two days, the specialists had the opportunity to attend presentations on the latest scientific advances in these four therapeutic areas. One highlight was the presentation of the results of the SECURE Study – recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) – led by Dr. Jose María Castellano, scientific director of the HM Hospitals Research Foundation and first author of the publication.
The specialist cardiologist's presentation explained all the details of how the polypill, developed by the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) and Ferrer, is effective in preventing cardiovascular events after a heart attack, decreasing mortality from cardiovascular causes by 33%i. According to the researcher, “the results of SECURE reveal, for the first time, that the polypill containing aspirin, atorvastatin, and ramipril achieves clinically significant reductions in recurrent cardiovascular events among people who have recovered from a previous heart attack”.
David Martorell, Ferrer's LatAm Region Director, emphasized that the company “has a mission to provide significant differential value to people suffering from serious illnesses, and has therefore developed a portfolio of innovative products capable of transforming the lives of patients, often treating diseases that have no appropriate or authorized treatments”. In addition, he stressed that “Ferrer plans to boost its presence in Latin America through its subsidiaries on the continent and via key future launches, both in hospitals and in the focus therapeutic areas”.
Ferrer's positive impact is expanding through Latin America
In addition to the scientific presentations, the event sought to produce a positive impact in society, and therefore shared information with attendees about the 'For Good' activities carried out by Ferrer in the region. Specifically, Ferrer is collaborating with the Home Away from Home Foundation. On Friday evening, in a moving gesture, Ferrer gave a donation of USD 5,000 to the foundation, as well as providing medical teams and purchasing toys and cleaning materials.
Mario Rovirosa, Ferrer's CEO, said “we want to promote a new way of doing business and a new way of being in the world. Our business is not an end in itself, but a means to generate substantial social change. We work to achieve a minimum level of profitability that guarantees the company's sustainability and to reinvest a large part of our profits in initiatives with social and environmental impact. To achieve this, the collaboration with the Home Away from Home Foundation reflects our firm commitment to the young people of Panama, particularly those in vulnerable situations”.
A 100% sustainable event
In keeping with Ferrer's mission to protect the environment both for ourselves and for future generations, the highest possible sustainability standards were adhered to for the event, and all CO2 emissions generated through travel, energy consumption, accommodation, food consumed, and materials produced were offset.
In total, 106 tons of CO2 were offset through participation in the environmental project VCS Peralta Wind, an initiative to develop and operate an onshore wind farm 280 km north of Montevideo, in Uruguay, which helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions by replacing the generation of energy using fossil fuels with energy from wind.
Also, with the aim of continuing to generate a positive impact in society and to make Summit attendees aware of the importance of protecting our planet, Ferrer showed attendees the LatAm Summit forest where, symbolically, Ferrer has planted one tree for each attendee in order to generate awareness of sustainability. Under this Treedom project that Ferrer is partnering, so far more than 3 million trees have been planted in Africa, South America and Asia. All the trees are directly planted by local farmers, bringing environmental, social and financial benefits to their communities. Each tree in Treedom geolocated, photographed and has its own page online at treedom.net.
About Ferrer
At Ferrer we generate a positive impact in society and meet the highest standards in terms of social and environment performance, transparency and corporate responsibility in all the territories in which we have a direct presence. Therefore, as of 2022, we are a B corporation and are certified as a Great Place to Work.
In order to be able to fulfill our aims, we offer transformative therapeutic solutions, with an increasing focus on pulmonary vascular and interstitial lung disease and on neurological disorders.
We were founded in Barcelona in 1959, our products are present in over 100 countries, and we have a workforce of more than 1,800. We empower and support these professionals in their learning and wellbeing so that they feel proud to work in our company.
We are Ferrer. Ferrer for good.
i Polypill Strategy in Secondary Cardiovascular Prevention Castellano JM, Fuster V et al. New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). 2022 Aug.
The original source-language text of this announcement is the official, authoritative version. Translations are provided as an accommodation only, and should be cross-referenced with the source-language text, which is the only version of the text intended to have legal effect.
