Part 1 Patient Empowerment; Why involving patients from early drug development through to launch is a no-brainer!

P4A Let's Talk Rare: The Life Science Podcast

This month we have a special 2-part series focused on Patient Empowerment, with special guests Laurence Woollard, On the Pulse, Neil Bertelsen, Independent Consultant & Sophie Schmitz, Managing Partner at P4A. This podcast is a MUST to listen too if you are a company looking to successfully develop and commercialize an orphan drug or ATMP

The first part will focus on how do we ensure there is genuine patient involvement at all stages of drug development? What are the challenges and barriers for patients living with a rare disease vs drug developers within the rare/ultra-rare sphere?

The second part will solely focus on the WHY! Why should drug manufacturers, payors, regulators and HTA bodies involve and listen to the patients? What do they bring to the table? We will also dive into the implications of not including the patient voice and use examples of companies that have successfully managed to do this and the benefits of doing so.

Laurence Woollard, Owner On The Pulse

Laurence Woollard is founder and director of On The Pulse – an independent, strategic consultancy providing specialist insight to global healthcare providers and multi-agencies on the development and rollout of patient activation campaigns in haemophilia and rare disease. Laurence has extensive patient advocacy experience, having advised on and implemented a broad scope of community awareness, research and educational initiatives for commercial partners and third-sector organisations.

Neil Bertelsen, Independent Consultant

Neil Bertelsen is an independent consultant and patient advocate with over 25 years of experience bringing the patient voice to health care decision makers and communicating the science of health care to patients in a way that truly informs their own personal health choices. Neil is passionate about bringing the patient experience and perspectives to decision-makers including industry and health technology assessment (HTA) bodies. Neil is the past chair of HTAi (the global scientific society of HTA) Patient and Citizen Involvement Interest Group. This is an international multi-stakeholder group whose remit is to work alongside HTA organizations and patient organizations to bring patient involvement processes and patient insights and experiences into access decision making processes.

Sophie Schmitz, Managing Partner P4A

Sophie is managing partner at Partners4Access(P4A),an award winning global consultancy focused on access for orphan drugs & ATMPS. P4A support the biotechnology & pharma industry along their launch journey to help secure successful price, reimbursement and access for orphan drugs & ATMPs. The company has solid partnerships with clients supporting their strategy & operations to effectively launch success.