From 3rd – 4th OIFE was represented by Alessandra Tolaccia at the European Conference on Rare Diseases & Orphan Products (ECRD) in Prague. ECRD2026 opened with a clear message: Europe has the knowledge, the momentum and the community needed to act. Now it needs coordination, political will and implementation. Held under the theme Rare Diseases…
November 9th and 10th OIFE was represented by Ingunn Westerheim at the Council of Federations (CEF) meeting of EURORDIS – the European umbrella organization for rare conditions. The socalled CEF is a forum where umbrella organizations and federations for rare conditions in Europe come together to learn about news in the European rare disease field…
The IMPACT Survey is a joint initiative between OIFE, OIF & Mereo BioPharma. The survey will be launched in summer 2021 and we will need the help of all our member organizations and the OI-community to spread the word and encourage as many people with OI (and parents) to fill in the survey. Written by…
The European member organizations of OIFE virtually came together on February 1st to learn about what’s happening in pharmacological research and how the patient organizations in Europe can work nationally and on a European level to improve access to new and potential treatments for OI. In addition to the delegates, leaders from the European OI-organizations…
On November 30th OIFE was represented at an interactive meeting about Orphan Drugs hosted by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Orphan drugs are medicinal products intended for diagnosis, prevention or treatment of rare diseases. There are currently two designated orphan drugs being investigated in OI, the most known being setrusumab from Mereo Biopharma. Products for…
Can patient engagement foster access? On September 24th representatives from OIFE attended a very interesting webinar on pricing of rare disease drugs. It was called “How patient engagement can foster access through improved affordability” and included lectures from pharma companies, patient experts and health economists. The speakers raised a lot of important questions like: What…
What do you think are the most pressing challenges that EU funded research and innovation should tackle for the rare disease community? The European Commission is preparing the implementation of Horizon Europe, the next EU research and innovation programme (2021-2027) with a budget of €100 billion, in an intensive co-design process. As part of the…
The European Medicines Agency and EU healthcare payers continued their cooperation this week at a meeting in Diemen, the Netherlands, to help improve timely and affordable access for patients to new medicines. Margriet Crezee from the Netherlands represented OIFE to talk about the patient perspective. Topics on the agenda included evidence generation for orphan medicines,…
OIFE had several representatives in Brussels attending the 3rd EURORDIS Multi-Stakeholder Symposium on Improving Patients’ Access to Rare Disease Therapies (https://www.eurordis.org/3rd-access-symposium) in February 2019. During the conference there were also opportunities to network. Here with representatives from Open App, Bindeweefsel.Be and Mereo. What was interesting to know? Our Honorary Member Taco van Welzenis gives an…
