Bayer HealthCare provides sponsorship for World Thrombosis Day

Bayer HealthCare has sponsored the first World Thrombosis Day, a new annual event designed to raise awareness of the seriousness of blood clots.

As a founding global partner for the event, the company allied with the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis to launch the campaign yesterday (October 13th 2014), coinciding with the birthday of Rudolf Virchow, the physician and pathologist who coined the term thrombosis.

Blood clots are the underlying condition responsible for the three leading causes of cardiovascular death – heart attack, stroke and venous thromboembolism – yet a recent global survey revealed that only one in ten people consider them as life-threatening as AIDS, breast cancer, prostate cancer or road traffic accidents.

Dr Joerg Moeller, member of the Bayer HealthCare executive committee and head of global development, said: "We believe that a united global effort can drive real change to effectively reduce the number of undiagnosed cases and increase the use of evidence-based advances to help prevent the risk of blood clots worldwide."

This comes after the firm recently confirmed it has will be be making $3.2 million (1.99 million pounds) worth of medical products available to treat Ebola patients in Sierra Leone and Liberia.