Millions with Debilitating Skin Conditions to be Helped with New Technology Crowdsourcing Competitions

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK and NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - November 02, 2016) - LEO Innovation Lab and HeroX today announced the "Relieve Itch" and "Skin Prediction" Challenges -- crowdsourced competitions with $150,000 in prizes awarded for innovative, technology-based ideas that could lead to solutions for helping the millions of people worldwide find relief from life-altering skin conditions, such as psoriasis.

Open to competitors worldwide, the LEO Innovation Lab Challenges leverage the HeroX crowdsourcing business model designed to bring about radical business, technological and social innovation benefiting local and global communities, inspiring new industries and catalyzing markets. Solutions may use newly developed technologies or deploy existing technologies such as virtual reality, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), psoriasis is a serious global problem with at least 100 million individuals affected worldwide. Psoriasis has an unpredictable course of symptoms, a number of external triggers and significant comorbidities, including arthritis, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease and depression. The WHO recommends that research on new treatments should focus on options which can be applicable globally, on a large scale. New treatments need to be affordable, effective and safe in the long term, stable in hot and humid climates and require minimal monitoring.¹

"At LEO Innovation Lab, we aim to transform the approach to finding new symptom-relief solutions by opening up the thought process to the world via crowdsourcing," said Kristian Hart-Hansen, CEO, LEO Innovation Lab. "Rather than providing medicine to temporarily relieve symptoms, we believe that treating a disease needs to be a holistic process. In addition to think differently about future solutions, we hope to

"The HeroX model unites everyday people who have great ideas with people who may have exhausted conventional solutions to pressing problems," said HeroX Challenge Success, Nidhi Chaudhary. "The LEO Innovation Lab Challenges seek to uncover new and immediately deployable, technology-driven ideas for reducing skin condition symptoms and predicting outbreaks so that people can be treated more quickly and efficiently than ever before."

Competition Judging and Prizes
Judging criteria and other information can be found at herox.com/relieveitch and herox.com/skinprediction.

ALERT FOR MEDIA: LAUNCH EVENT - NEW YORK
WHAT: "Innovation in Pharma", Launch of HeroX "Relieve Itch" and "Skin Prediction" Challenges
WHO: Henrik Werdelin, CEO, Prehype; Kristian Hart-Hansen, CEO LEO Innovation Lab; Nidhi Chaudhary, Vice President, HeroX
WHEN: Thursday, November 3, 2016 from 12-1pm
WHERE: LEO Pharma NYSKIN pop-up shop: 446 WEST 14TH STREET
RSVP: Media Contact below

About LEO Innovation Lab leoinnovationlab.com
LEO Innovation Lab is a business unit, established by LEO Pharma A/S as part of a long-term strategic decision to focus on patient needs. LEO Innovation Lab works independently from the rest of the LEO organization. We don't develop medical treatments - instead we look at all the aspects of everyday life that can affect a person who has a skin condition. The solutions are focused primarily on e-Health and add-on devices.

LEO Innovation Lab is a small and agile business unit, where innovation thrives and solutions are tested and brought to market at a fast pace. LEO Innovation Lab has satellites in Copenhagen, London, Paris, San Francisco and Toronto.

As LEO Pharma is owned entirely by the LEO Foundation and has no external shareholders, its profits are reinvested in the company to support the overall mission: To help people achieve healthy skin.

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facebook.com/LEOILab
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About HeroX http://www.herox.com

Founded in 2013, HeroX exists at the intersection of crowdsourcing, competition and collaboration, using each to drive positive change. A suite of tools and services to help spark and build awareness for new solutions to social and economic challenges, the HeroX incentive prize platform connects funding companies and individuals with problem solvers.
Twitter: @Iamherox
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IamHeroX

¹ WHO Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Global report on psoriasis. 1.Psoriasis - epidemiology. World Health Organization. ISBN 978 92 4 156518 9 (NLM classification: WR 205)

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