4th Berlin Conference on IP in Life Sciences: Rare Diseases – Blockbusters in the Niche

Personalized Medicine – once seen as a threat to the Pharma Industry – is today viewed as a growth opportunity. In the future, the sale of pharmaceuticals must be redefined away from a bulk business as patients and treatments become individual and unique. Consequently, as the industry learns to deal with small populations, the development of orphan drugs becomes increasingly interesting.

In Europe, between 5,000 and 8,000 people suffer from a rare disease, most of them life-threatening or chronically debilitating. Orphan indications affect between 6% and 8% of the population in total. This is between 27 and 36 million people in the European Union who represent an interesting target group for the industry. However, the research, development, and marketing of orphan drugs must keep to strict guidelines.

This BIOCOM Event offered a unique opportunity to gain insight into the strategies of pharma and biotech companies. Leading experts in the field will shared their knowledge on how to successfully bring orphan drugs to the market. Representatives from biotech and pharmaceutical companies, researchers, business developers, clinical trial- and marketing experts, as well as investors, advisers and patent lawyers attended this high-level event in the standout location of the Spanish Embassy in Berlin.