AstraZeneca Philippines has announced a partnership with health insurance provider, Intellicare, and top local life insurer PRU Life UK to increase patient support in lung cancer diagnosis and treatment.

In the Philippines, cancer is now the 2nd leading cause of death, next to heart disease. In 2018, there were more than 140,000 new cancer cases and more than 86,000 cancer deaths. Among the different types of cancer, lung cancer is the deadliest. Lung cancer accounts for the highest mortality rate among malignancies, with 59 percent of cases diagnosed only after reaching its metastatic stage. At a late stage diagnosis, survival rates drop to as low as 3 percent.

To answer this unmet need, AstraZeneca sets a long term goal to address mortality through early detection, education, treatment, and post-treatment support. Through scientific and technological innovation, AstraZeneca Philippines is dedicated to enhancing disease understanding and pioneering new approaches to patient care. AstraZeneca Philippines works with various stakeholders such as Intellicare and PRU Life UK in developing programs and approaches that improve the continuum of care.

This multilateral partnership addresses three key components: disease awareness, early detection, and other crucial patient support mechanisms. Moreover, it provides a holistic approach in Lung cancer management and establishes an ecosystem throughout the journey of a lung cancer patient, providing the best health and wellness program for Filipinos.

“In AstraZeneca, patients are at the center of everything we do. We evolve our ways of working to address the unmet needs of Filipino patients. Through a continuum of innovative healthcare solutions and partnerships, we aim to lessen the disease burden and enable achievement of optimal disease management in a number of diseases, including cancer,’’ says Lotis Ramin, country president of AstraZeneca Philippines.

These insurance-based partnerships with Intellicare and PRU Life UK will further support AstraZeneca’s patient programs such as ONCOnnect—a cancer care hotline—and LVNG with Lung Cancer, a support group of about thousands of people across the globe who are helping each other learn, understand, and overcome cancer.