Global Remission Coalition
We are delighted to announce that ASIF has become one of the founding members of the Global Remission Coalition which was launched on 21 May 2025 on the side of the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland. The Global Alliance for Patient Access (GafPA) has, over the past 18 months, convened a series of stakeholder meetings and established that a consensus exists to collaborate on elevating awareness about the benefits of pursuing remission in immune-mediated inflammatory conditions (IMICs), including axSpA. It is clear that despite there being amazing treatments available, patients and providers are not pushing for optimal care, they are settling for somewhat less. The main aim of the Coalition will be to raise awarness about the value of remission and advocate for policies that prioritise the pursuit of remission.
Coalition Objectives
The advocacy programming of the Global Remission Coalition includes:
- Support stakeholders at the national level who seek to inform national policymakers about the value and benefits of pursuing remission.
- Engage policymakers at the World Health Organization and regional policy forums to prioritize policies that promote the pursuit of remission.
- Elevate awareness about the value of remission in inflammatory conditions, via participation in health policy focused conferences and forums and social media promotion.
Jo Davies joined others, including Grainne O’Leary, CEO of Arthritis Ireland and Katy Antonopoulou, who was representing Agora, at the meeting in Geneva where Prof Anthony Woolf, G-MUSC provided the opening remarks and Anthony Duttine, Technical Lead (Rehabilitation), WHO provided the perspective from the World Health Organisation. Anthony, a physiotherapist by profession, talked about the close overlap between rehabilitation and the pursuit of remission in IMICs and the advantages of forming a coalition across disease areas to raise awareness of an issue to get recognition and a resolution from the WHA.
There followed a round-table discussion during which Jo talked about how for those with axSpA, the pursuit of remission depends very much on patients receiving an earlier diagnosis than they currently do.
