Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics (AANMA) received an educational grant from Genentech, Inc., and Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation to help patients better understand allergic asthma.
?We appreciate the companies? support of AANMA?s education and outreach efforts,? says AANMA President Nancy Sander. ?More than 30 million Americans have been diagnosed with asthma, 70 percent of them with allergic asthma. Yet most do not understand the critical link between their allergies and asthma.?
AANMA develops medically accurate, patient-friendly information about asthma, allergies and related conditions to improve the lives of patients and their families. ?Our education and outreach campaigns are based on what patients tell us they need,? continues Sander. ?When parents told us their children were not allowed to carry lifesaving medications at school ? a problem my own children faced ? AANMA worked with Congress on legislation encouraging states to allow students with asthma and anaphylaxis to carry and use their medications at school. That legislation ? HR 2023 ? was signed into law by President Bush in October 2005.? Today, AANMA?s efforts include exposing the dangers of illegally manufactured nebulizer medications and eliminating policies that provide financial incentives to substitute patients? FDA-approved medications with unapproved knockoffs.