Rabat – This weekend marked World Mental Health Day. The annual event aims to raise awareness of mental health issues and mobilize efforts to provide support and treatment.
Danish ambassador of Morocco, Nikolaj Harris opened the doors of the Danish residency in Rabat to welcome the Moroccan Ministry of Health, doctors and several stakeholders on the 2019 mental health awareness day.
In his opening speech to the attendees, Harris stressed the importance of mental health as an issue around which a lot of initiatives have to be mobilized. “Every 40 seconds a person commits suicide on account of mental health issues, making it an acute problem for all,” stated Harris.
Combatting mental health issues requires companies to invest in medical development.
Founded over a hundred years ago in Copenhagen, Lundbeck focuses solely on developing medicines for brain diseases with a foothold in the MENA-region.
Wouter IJzerman
“Over 700 million people suffer from depression globally, 50% of them do not receive their proper medication,” stated by Managing Director Henrik Agerbaek-Larsen. According to Agerbaek-Larsen, long term investments by companies are essential for developing brain medicines.
“On average it takes ten years of research before a medicine is fit for mass production,” Agerbaek-Larsen underlines. Products of Lundbeck are registered in more than 100 countries and reach 50 million patients worldwide.
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But before patients receive their proper medication, as Agerbaek-Larsen concludes the presentation: “Increasing the awareness of mental health, is in many ways the first step to help a patient.”
