Dear Reader,
I want to invite you to join me and 700 others from the rare disease community at our annual Summit. This year, NORD’s 2018 Rare Diseases and Orphan Products Breakthrough Summit will take place October 15-16 in Washington, D.C.
We expect this year’s Summit to again be the single most important gathering of the rare disease community. This is a unique opportunity to interact with leaders from patient groups, industry, academia, investors, and government.
This year’s meeting is especially timely. 2018 has been a milestone year, as we’ve marked the 35th anniversary of the groundbreaking Orphan Drug Act and of NORD itself. With 47 FDA approvals and 199 designations granted so far in 2018, it is clear that the pace of innovation is accelerating.
With innovation comes new challenges such as how patients will access these new treatments and whether payers will cover them, and what role patients will play in future drug development. These are among the many topics at our Summit, whose theme is “A New Era of Patient-Focused Innovation.”
Highlights of the Summit will include:
- A keynote address from Dr. Scott Gottlieb, Commissioner of the FDA
- A session with the directors of FDA’s three medical centers, CDER, CBER and CDRH, who will discuss the future direction of Patient-Focused Drug Development, use of patient reported outcome data, and Patient Listening Sessions
- Plenary sessions on the future of investments and research in orphan product development, state and federal policies affecting the rare disease community, and pricing issues
- Six breakout tracks over two days, with 14 dedicated “Lunch and Learn” discussions
- More than 85 knowledgeable, passionate speakers
- The largest poster session to-date, highlighting life-transforming treatments and innovation
- Increased networking opportunities for face-to-face connections using our new mobile networking application
I hope you’ll join us for what promises to be an invigorating and thought-provoking Summit this October. You won’t want to miss it!
Sincerely,
Peter L. Saltonstall
President and CEO of NORD