What is a severe disease?

There is no official medical definition of a severe disease so the following is our definition as we use it:

Severe diseases are non-contagious diseases whose physical and social symptoms can have a severe impact on sufferers' abilities to lead normal everyday lives. A person with Crohn's disease, for example, is not only likely to experience severe stomach aches and uncontrollable urges to go to the bathroom, they usually have to map any social outings around the availability of public toilets, significantly restricting their lives.

Although these types of diseases usually do not require hospitalisation, they often involve a high level of dependency on families, friends and other carers, as well as regular treatment by specialist physicians. For example, someone with epilepsy will, on average, require over two carers.

Currently, most severe diseases are incurable but their symptoms can be alleviated through specialist treatments.

Severe diseases that UCB is currently addressing include:

• Crohn's disease
• systemic lupus erythematosus
• psoriasis
• rheumatoid arthritis
• asthma
• epilepsy
• neuropathic pain
• fibromyalgia
• Parkinson's disease
• restless legs syndrome
• multiple sclerosis
• non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
• non-small cell lung cancer
• osteoporosis and other bone disorders