Washington D.C. / November 28, 2018 – Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. will host its Advancing Mental Health Policy Forum to celebrate and commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, which requires insurers to cover illnesses of the brain no more restrictively than illnesses of the body.
Patrick J. Kennedy, lead sponsor of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, founder of The Kennedy Forum, former Rhode Island Congressman, and international advocate for parity in mental health and substance use disorder treatment, will deliver the keynote address.
The event will convene mental health policy leaders, patient advocacy groups, practitioners, and leaders in the mental health care industry, and aims to drive collaboration and advance policy goals for people living with mental illness. Participating organizations will include The American Psychiatric Association, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), National Alliance on Mental Illness and other leading government, advocacy and policy institutions. Interactive panel discussions will focus on three main themes: fulfilling parity, care coordination, and community supports and incentivizing quality care.
To learn more about Otsuka, please visit www.otsuka-us.com.
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About The Kennedy Forum
Founded in 2013 by former Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.), The Kennedy Forum leads a national dialogue on transforming the health care system by uniting mental health advocates, business leaders, and government agencies around a common set of principles, including full implementation of the Federal Parity Law. Launched in celebration of the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s signing of the landmark Community Mental Health Act, the nonprofit aims to achieve health equity by advancing evidence-based practices, policies, and programming for the treatment of mental health and addiction. The Kennedy Forum’s “Don’t Deny Me” campaign empowers patients and their loved ones to report illegal insurance denials of mental health and addiction treatment, and fight for their parity rights. To learn more about The Kennedy Forum and donate, please visit www.thekennedyforum.org.
About Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Otsuka Pharmaceutical is a global healthcare company with the corporate philosophy: “Otsuka-people creating new products for better health worldwide.” Otsuka researches, develops, manufactures and markets innovative products, with a focus on pharmaceutical products for the treatment of diseases and nutraceutical products for the maintenance of everyday health.
In pharmaceuticals, Otsuka is a leader in the challenging area of mental health and has research programs on several under-addressed diseases including tuberculosis, a significant global public health issue. These commitments illustrate how Otsuka is a “big venture” company at heart, applying a youthful spirit of creativity in everything it does.
Otsuka established a presence in the U.S. in 1973 and today its U.S. affiliates include Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization, Inc. (OPDC) and Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. (OAPI). These companies’ 1,800 employees in the U.S. develop and commercialize medicines in mental health, oncology, cardio-renal and nephrology, using cutting-edge technology to address unmet healthcare needs. Otsuka’s most recently approved product in the U.S. is indicated for the treatment of adults with schizophrenia and as an adjunctive therapy to antidepressant medications for adults with major depressive disorder. In the medical device field, Otsuka markets a urea breath test used to detect H. pylori infection in the digestive tract.
OPDC and OAPI are indirect subsidiaries of Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd., which is a subsidiary of Otsuka Holdings Co., Ltd. headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The Otsuka group of companies employed 46,000 people worldwide and had consolidated sales of approximately USD 11.1 billion in 2017.
All Otsuka stories start by taking the road less travelled. Learn more about Otsuka in the U.S. at www.otsuka-us.com and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter at @OtsukaUS. Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.’s global website is accessible at www.otsuka.co.jp/en/.
