Big news!
We’re featured in Health Awareness and Mediaplanet‘s 2021 Rare Diseases campaign!
Our CEO, Dr. Rick Thompson, was asked to write about drug repurposing for last year’s 2020 Rare Diseases campaign, where he spoke to how COVID-19 had proven the value of drug repurposing and shown what could be achieved when a sense of urgency drives all players in the drug development process.
He highlighted how rare disease patients have struggled to translate their urgency into a drive for new treatments outside of their community, and how by acting as a unified rare disease community, we could harness that urgency to accelerate rare disease change and treatment. His article entitled, Drug repurposing is bringing hope to rare diseases, was not only published online, but also in The New Scientist!
For this year’s 2021 campaign, Rick decided to address a topic that’s near and dear to all of us. He chose to highlight the importance and power of rare disease patient groups!
“Rare disease patient groups act as a focal point for a rare condition. They create a community through shared experience – connecting affected individuals who can learn from one another and gain hope. Patient groups break the isolation of rarity, but they also do so much more.“
Rick draws attention and praise to the incredible achievements of The EOS Network to illustrate his point, and encourages readers to remember (and support!) rare disease patient groups throughout the pandemic.
Read Rick’s article, Rare disease patient groups provide hope to isolated communities in full now and let us know your thoughts on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. Be sure to pick up a copy of the Guardian newspaper, too, as the entire campaign was published in it in honour of Rare Disease Day 2021!