MANILA, Philippines - As founding global partner, Bayer HealthCare joins the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) to launch the annual World Thrombosis Day. Held for the first time, World Thrombosis Day is dedicated to focusing attention on the underlying condition responsible for the three leading causes of cardiovascular death – heart attack, stroke and venous thromboembolism (VTE, or venous blood clots). The seriousness of thrombosis – or blood clots – is often overlooked and misunderstood. A recent global survey showed that only one in 10 people consider blood clots as life threatening as AIDS, breast cancer, prostate cancer or road traffic accidents. Yet, blood clots kill three times more people each year in Europe alone than all of these combined. “Thrombosis is a life-threatening disease and places a heavy burden on patients, carers, physicians and healthcare systems,” said Dr. Joerg Moeller, member of the Bayer HealthCare Executive Committee and head of Global Development. “Bayer HealthCare is honoured to be the founding global partner of the ISTH World Thrombosis Day. We believe that a united global effort can drive real change to effectively reduce the number of undiagnosed cases and increase the use of evidence-based advances to help prevent the risk of blood clots worldwide and improve the health of patients, who do suffer from thrombosis.”