Update: France's LEEM rewards diary of a patient

Christian Lajoux, the president of the French drug industry association, the LEEM, believes that the decision to sponsor an annual literary prize for the best book written by a patient about their condition in the previous 12 months, will benefit the dialog between drugmakers and the public. The award, titled "Paroles de Patients" ("patients' words"), is given to the top-ranked of 12 books that are reviewed by a jury consisting of academics and journalists.

The winning entry was titled Une promenade de sante (a healthy stroll), co-authored by Christian and Olga Baudelot. Mr Lajoux said that the diary "enables a larger audience to become aware of the advances of medicine and the growing range of options that patients and their loved-ones have at their disposal."

Mrs Baudelot suffered from a hereditary kidney disorder which caused the deaths of her mother and maternal grandmother. Mr Baudelot discovered that innovative therapy had been developed and that he was a suitable organ donor for his wife. Their diary recounts their experiences during diagnosis and successful treatment.