Vygon Group joins forces with EFCNI to mark 10th World Prematurity Day

Ecouen, France, November 16, 2018 – Vygon, the specialist single-use medical devices group, is holding a number of awareness-raising events to mark World Prematurity Day on November 17. For the fourth year running, Vygon renews its bronze partnership with EFCNI. This year sees an extended program and increased involvement for the group.

Worldwide, fifteen million infants are born prematurely each year. World Prematurity Day provides an opportunity to raise global awareness about the challenges of preterm birth through a range of events taking place in well-known hospitals.

“Vygon shares the values advocated by EFCNI. It strives to develop innovative medical devices that are specially designed to cater to the needs of premature babies, in order to help medical teams deliver the very best care,” said Stéphane Regnault, chairman of Vygon’s management board. “This is why we have decided to be an EFCNI bronze partner and to support World Prematurity Day though presentations on medical devices. We asked our teams to organize a number of awareness-raising events at our many subsidiaries throughout the world.”

Since 2008, the European Foundation for the Care of Newborn Infants (EFCNI), together with parents of premature newborns associations, have been working towards making World Prematurity Day the highlight of their year. EFCNI is the first pan-European organization to represent the interests of premature and newborn infants and their families. It engages parents, scientists and healthcare specialists from different disciplines, with the shared aim of improving the long-term health of premature and newborn infants. The Foundation’s vision is to ensure the best start in life for all babies. Its work aims to reduce the preterm birth rate, provide the best possible treatment and care, and harmonize the care of newborns across all European countries.

This year’s World Prematurity Day activities will highlight discussions with parents and caregivers: testimonies of parents of hospitalized premature infants, video broadcasts and demonstrations of related medical devices. Vygon’s specialized neonatal teams have developed specific awareness-raising activities for leading hospitals, such as the Kuilsriver Hospital in Cape Town and the Leratong Hospital in Johannesburg (South Africa), the King Fahad University Hospital in Al Khobar (Saudi Arabia), the Medcare Hospital in Dubai (UAE) or the Antoine Béclère Hospital in Clamart (France). The Vygon Group will also involve its subsidiaries from other parts of the world, including Belgium, Egypt, Germany, Hong-Kong, Iran, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Switzerland, Turkey, the US and more.

To keep up-to-date with the events planned for Prematurity Day on November 17:

• EFCNI: https://www.facebook.com/efcni / https://twitter.com/EFCNIwecare
• Vygon: https://twitter.com/VygonGroup  /https://www.instagram.com/vygongroup/

About preterm birth

A global issue, preterm birth is a major risk factor for morbidity and mortality in the newborn population. With 15 million infants born prematurely each year, industry collaboration with specialist physicians is an essential tool for developing medical devices specifically for these vulnerable infants, so they can grow and develop just like other children.

About EFCNI

The history of EFCNI starts with the very personal experience of Silke Mader, who lost one of her twins in 1997 after they were born prematurely. In the wake of this tragedy, Silke joined a local association for parents of premature babies. After becoming chair of the national association some years later, she founded EFCNI with neonatologists and other parents affected by preterm birth, to take the fight for preterm infants and their families to the European stage. November 2008 marked the start of a pan-European collaboration, with 25 representatives from 18 countries coming together to discuss what they could do to achieve their common goals. Since it was founded in 2008, EFCNI has grown into a world-renowned organization that advocates for premature infants, sick newborns and their parents. It has the support of a network of some 70 national parents’ associations and many professional organizations and societies throughout the world.

www.efcni.org

About Vygon Group

Vygon designs, manufactures and markets high-tech single-use medical devices for healthcare professionals in hospital and for private and independent practitioners. Vygon is a world leader within this industry, offering a wide range of products in a number of clinical specialties. Organized in five business units (Intensive Care – Neonatology, Enteral & Obstetrics – Intravascular Therapies – Cardiovascular & Surgery – Anesthesia & Emergency), Vygon combines local and international in-depth expertise and know-how in each individual field. With expertise right along the value chain, from product design to the delivery of training for medical personnel, Vygon provides health care professionals with effective and innovative products tailored to their needs and those of their patients, for optimum use and safety. The company distributes over 205 million products a year in more than 120 countries through its network of 27 subsidiaries and 331 distributors. Vygon products display the CE and/or FDA mark and are manufactured in the group’s ten factories in Europe, the USA and Colombia. A family company founded in 1962, Vygon is based in Ecouen, in France’s Greater Paris region. It is a mid-sized business employing 2,350 staff worldwide. The turnover in 2017 was €310 million ($362M), with 81% of this derived from Vygon’s international business.

www.vygon.com