The World Heart Federation, sanofi-aventis and Boehringer Ingelheim Announce Collaboration on Worldwide AF Awareness Campaign

Geneva (ots/PRNewswire) - The World Heart Federation,
sanofi-aventis and Boehringer Ingelheim have announced their
collaboration on the AF AWARE (Atrial Fibrillation AWareness And Risk
Education) campaign today, to raise awareness of atrial fibrillation
(AF) and its links to severe consequences including cardiovascular
(CV) mortality, stroke and CV hospitalizations. The campaign aims to
promote education around the risks associated with AF as well as
highlight the importance of early diagnosis and comprehensive
management to maximize patient outcomes.

"AF is a growing public health issue, affecting not only the
patients who live with the condition, but also their families and the
healthcare systems in the countries where they live. Yet research
shows there is a perceived lack of awareness and understanding of
this condition," said Johanna Ralston, Chief Executive Officer, World
Heart Federation. "The AF AWARE campaign was established to
specifically address the lack of awareness and endeavours to draw
attention to this serious, chronic, disease, the consequences of
which can have devastating effects on patients and healthcare
systems."

"Despite the fact that the complications of AF can be severe, for
many people living with AF, the condition has very little noticeable
impact on their lives, and in some cases goes undiagnosed and
untreated, resulting in strokes that could be prevented. Up to three
million people worldwide suffer strokes related to AF each year, with
half of patients dying within 12 months," said Klaus Dugi, Corporate
Senior Vice President Medicine, Boehringer Ingelheim. "We are
delighted to support the AF AWARE campaign in 2011, as it is critical
that effective action is taken now for individuals living with AF and
their families, to ensure the optimal management of the condition,
reducing the number of strokes related to AF."

A recent report found that the lives of thousands of people
living with AF could be at risk due to delay in time to diagnosis,
poor adherence to treatment guidelines and lack of information for
patients suffering from this debilitating heart condition.[1] People
living with AF have a lower quality of life than healthy
individuals,[2],[3] as AF is also frequently associated with multiple
CV co-morbidities which can adversely affect a patient's long-term
outcomes. AF carries a four-to five-fold increased risk of stroke and
is associated with a high risk of CV events [3] and hospitalization.
Using data from 10,000 AF patients, the REALISE AF registry showed
that about 29per cent of AF patients had a CV event leading to
unplanned hospitalization in the last 12 months.[4]

"Atrial fibrillation is a major cause of morbidity and mortality
which contributes to a substantial public health burden" said Nazira
Amra, M.D., Associate Vice President, Global Anti-Arrhythmics
Strategy, sanofi-aventis. "Sanofi-aventis has been supporting AF
AWARE since its inception and we are delighted to continue this
global initiative in collaboration with the World Heart Federation
and Boehringer Ingelheim in order to raise AF awareness and promote
better access to information for patients, their caregivers and
health care providers."

The World Heart Federation will lead the initiative
internationally and will also work closely with SAFE (Stroke Alliance
for Europe) and the Atrial Fibrillation Association (AFA), to deliver
the programme. Agreements have been established with sanofi-aventis
and Boehringer Ingelheim for a co-sponsorship.

The activities of the AF AWARE campaign are supported by funding
from both sanofi-aventis and Boehringer Ingelheim.

Notes to Editor

About Atrial Fibrillation (AF)

AF results from abnormal electrical activity in the upper
chambers of the heart (atria), leading to an irregular heart rhythm
which prevents the blood from efficiently being pumped toward the
rest of the body.[5] Common symptoms of AF include palpitations (a
rapid, irregular, "flopping" movement or pounding sensation in the
chest), shortness of breath, dizziness and feeling of heaviness in
the chest.[6] Age, obesity, hypertension, myocardial infarction (MI),
congestive heart failure (CHF) and valvular heart diseases [7] put
patients at increased risk of developing AF and AF itself worsens the
prognosis of patients with risk factors for cardiovascular diseases
such as stroke or myocardial infarction.[6],[8]

About the AF AWARE campaign

The AF AWARE (Atrial Fibrillation AWareness And Risk Education)
campaign dedicated to gaining greater recognition of atrial
fibrillation (AF) as a major international public health concern
through exposing current misperceptions of the condition and focusing
attention on the realities of the disease. The campaign calls for
urgent steps to be taken to improve the diagnosis and care of
patients with AF and the prevention of associated cardiovascular
conditions. AF AWARE was launched in 2009 by the World Heart
Federation, the Stroke Alliance For Europe, the Atrial Fibrillation
Association and the European Heart Rhythm Association. Initially
supported by a sponsorship from sanofi-aventis, it is now also
supported by Boehringer Ingelheim.

About the World Heart Federation

The World Heart Federation is dedicated to leading the global
fight against heart disease and stroke with a focus on low- and
middle-income countries via a united community of more than 200
member organizations. With its members, the World Heart Federation
works to build global commitment to addressing cardiovascular health
at the policy level, generates and exchanges ideas, shares best
practice, advances scientific knowledge and promotes knowledge
transfer to tackle cardiovascular disease - the world's number one
killer. It is a growing membership organization that brings together
the strength of medical societies and heart foundations from more
than 100 countries. Through our collective efforts we can help people
all over the world to lead longer and better heart-healthy lives.
http://www.worldheart.org

About sanofi-aventis

Sanofi-aventis, a leading global pharmaceutical company,
discovers, develops and distributes therapeutic solutions to improve
the lives of everyone. Sanofi-aventis is listed in Paris and in New
York . For more information, please visit
http://www.sanofi-aventis.com.

About Boehringer Ingelheim

The Boehringer Ingelheim group is one of the world's 20 leading
pharmaceutical companies. Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, it
operates globally with 142 affiliates in 50 countries and more than
41,500 employees. Since it was founded in 1885, the family-owned
company has been committed to researching, developing, manufacturing
and marketing novel products of high therapeutic value for human and
veterinary medicine. In 2009, Boehringer Ingelheim posted net sales
of 12.7 billion euro while spending 21% of net sales in its largest
business segment Prescription Medicines on research and development.

Boehringer Ingelheim is committed to improving cardiovascular
health worldwide through research into cardiovascular disease and the
development of new treatments in the area as well as by raising
awareness of cardiovascular health conditions such as atrial
fibrillation. In addition to partnering in the AF AWARE campaign,
Boehringer Ingelheim launched 1 Million 1 Million - Getting to the
Heart of Stroke (http://www.heartofstroke.com) in 2010, a global
disease awareness initiative that aims to prevent as many as 1
million atrial fibrillation-related strokes.

For more information about Boehringer Ingelheim, please visit
http://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com.

References

[1] Barham, L. Atrial Fibrillation in Europe: How AWARE are you?,
November 2010, last accessed http://www.world-heart-federation.org/fi
leadmin/user_upload/documents/AF-Awar e/AFAwareReport23nov2010.pdf,
09.02.11

[2] Dorian P et al. The impairment of health-related quality of
life in patients with intermittent atrial fibrillation: implications
for the assessment of investigational therapy JACC,
2000;36:1303-1309. Last accessed at:
http://content.onlinejacc.org/cgi/reprint/36/4/1303.pdf, 07.02.2011

[3] PA Wolf, RD Abbott and WB Kannel. Atrial fibrillation as an
independent risk factor for stroke: the Framingham Study. Stroke
1991;22;983-988. Last accessed:
http://stroke.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/22/8/983, 07.02.2011

[4] Steg G. Realise AF cross sectional registry. ESC 2010, Last
accessed http://spo.escardio.org/eslides/view.aspx?eevtid=40&fp=5080,
09.02.11

[5] The Task Force for the Management of Atrial Fibrillation of
the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), Guidelines for the
management of atrial fibrillation, European Heart Journal (2010) 31,
2369-2429. URL: http://www.escardio.org/guidelines-

[6] Benjamin E.J. et al., Impact of Atrial Fibrillation on the
Risk of Death: The Framingham Heart Study. Circulation
1998;98:946-952

[7] Benjamin E.J. et al., Prevention of atrial fibrillation:
report from a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute workshop.
Circulation 2009;119(4): 606-618

[8] Wachtell, K. et al., Angiotensin II receptor blockade reduces
new-onset atrial fibrillation and subsequent stroke compared to
atenolol, Journal of the American College of Cardiology
2005;45(5):712-719

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Contact:
For more information, please contact: Charanjit Jagait, Directorof
Communications, World Heart Federation, Tel: +41-22-807-0334,
Email:charanjit.jagait@worldheart.org Dafni Kokkidi, Weber Shandwick,
Tel:+44-207-067-0245, Email: dkokkidi@webershandwick.com