David has been involved with providing input to R&D from a patient perspective for more than 20 years. He has played an active role in the European Patients’ Academy on Therapeutic Innovation (EUPATI), and currently co-leads their external Advisory Committee. He is a past co-chair of the Patient and Consumer Working Party at the European Medicines Agency.Currently, is involved with Swissmedic’s Patients and Consumer Working Group, and he is a member of the PFMD Executive Committee, of the Zurich Cantonal Ethics Committee and the Impact Council for Gilde Healthcare. As a past member of the DIA Regional Advisory Council for EMEA, he was awarded the Outstanding Contribution to Global Health award in 2019.

Joep Muijrers has two decades of experience in the life sciences sector, combining investment and portfolio management experience with banking, operational and scientific expertise. Throughout his career, Dr. Muijrers has helped several companies become leaders in the biopharma industry, and recently led investments in many successful biotech companies, supporting the emergence of innovative therapies such as CAR-T cell therapies from Kite Pharma, Juno Therapeutics and others. Dr. Muijrers serves as Chief Financial Officer for PureTech Health in Boston, overseeing management of PureTech’s largely private investment portfolio.

Dimitrios Athanasiou was a PDCO member representing EURORDIS and WDO for the last 6 years. He holds a BA and an MBA in Financial Management He attended Eurordis Summer School and European Patient Academy (EUPATI) acquiring basic biotech and regulatory knowledge. As a full-time patient advocate in DMD, he is a board member of World Duchenne Organization (WDO), Chair of Rare Diseases Greece (RDG), and a member of PCWP in EMA.

Prof. Rübsamen-Schaeff was founder and CEO of AiCuris, a German Biopharma company dedicated to the research for drugs against infectious diseases from March 2006 - March 2015. She is now Chair of its Board. Before, Helga Rübsamen-Schaeff headed Bayer´s infectious disease discovery starting in 1993. She was the Scientific and Executive Director of the academic institute Chemotherapeutical Research Institute Georg-Speyer-Haus, Frankfurt before joining Bayer. She is presently a member of the Board of Partners of E. Merck KG and Chair of its Research Council, a member of the Supervisory Board of Merck KgaA, of the Supervisory Board of 4SC AG as well as of the EU Health Scientific Panel for the Framework Program Horizon 2020 of DG 12 of the EU.

Duane Schulthess is the CEO of Vital Transformation, an economics consultancy in Brussels, Belgium and Washington, DC. He is a member of the U.S. Congressional Health Care Task Force, and the Executive Producer of the Vital Health Podcast, ranked in the top 30 healthcare podcasts by traffic. Previously, he was the EMEA Head of Corporate Development of The Wall Street Journal. Duane has an MBA from KU Leuven's Vlerick Management School. He received a Leverhulme Trust Fellowship to study the French horn at London's Royal Academy of Music, and has a BA Magna Cum Laude from the University of the Pacific where he studied music and managerial economics, graduating Phi Kappa Phi. He is a senior associate of the UK's Royal Society of Medicine.

Wolfgang Stoiber has more than 30 years of experience as a pharmaceutical industry executive, and investment banker. Dr. Stoiber has closed transactions worth more than $2.5 billion. His particular focus is on sell-side partnering and M&A transactions in the biopharma field in the US and in Europe. As a partner at MPM Capital Dr. Stoiber built the firm’s transatlantic business. Before he managed Roche’s pharmaceutical business in Austria and France. Dr. Stoiber is a MD and a Wharton MBA.

Oliver is Investment Manager of Deutsche Börse Venture Network, an initiative of Deutsche Börse Group, aiming at building a strong, international network consisting of high-growth companies and top investors. It also provides a platform for personal interaction and the development of long-term relationships as well as the transaction service “Venture Match”. Participating companies come from all sectors. They are at different stages of funding - from the seed stage up to the pre-IPO stage. Oliver is responsible for the relationship management of the Biotech ventures and investors of the Venture Network community and supports them in their financing rounds. Furthermore, Oliver is in charge of the Frankfurt-based Deutsche Börse Fintech Hub.

The Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) is the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise, Scotland's main economic development agency. SIBs remit is to grow Scotland’s funding market to ensure that both early stage and established SMEs with growth and export potential have adequate access to growth capital to generate economic returns to Scotland.We are widely recognised as one of Europe’s most innovative and active public sector investment agencies, with an impressive track record of raising substantial European funds to invest in exciting Scottish companies.

Barbara Freischem is the Head of the Department ‘Veterinary Surveillance and Regulatory Support’ in the Veterinary Division of the European Medicines Agency. Her responsibilities include regulatory support to the Division, pharmacovigilance activities for veterinary medicines, and the monitoring of sales data for veterinary antimicrobials. Before rejoining the EMA in 2019, Barbara worked in different roles linked to regulation of mostly veterinary medicines at national, European and international level, both on the side of regulatory agencies and on the side of industry. Barbara has a degree in Veterinary Medicine from the Free University of Berlin.

Tomas Salmonson, M.Sc., PhD, brings outstanding experience and expertise from a long career in the regulation of medicines both on a national and European level to his new role. A pharmacist by training, he is currently senior scientific advisor at the Swedish Medical Products Agency in Uppsala, Sweden. He has been a member of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) for more than 12 years. In 2012, Dr Salmonson was elected chair of the CHMP; he was Vice chair of the CHMP from 2007 till 2012. Tomas has been DIA Advisory Council of Europe Member during 1996-2002 and a speaker in over 20 DIA Events.

Luca Pani, MD is Professor of Pharmacology, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy and Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, University of Miami, USA; Chief Scientific Officer for EDRA-LSWR Publishing Company, Italy and Inpeco SA, Switzerland and the VP for Regulatory Strategy and Market Access Innovation at VeraSci in Durham, USA. As former Director General of the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA, 2011-2016) and member of the CHMP and SAWP Committees for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in London (2010-2017), he is a recognized expert in regulatory science with particular emphasis on health technology assessment linked with novel negotiation strategies for the reimbursement of precision and innovative medicines such as gene-therapies.

Stefan Symeonides is a Medical Oncologist and Senior Clinical Lecturer in Experimental Cancer Medicine at the Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre. After medical training in the UK (Cambridge, Edinburgh), Australia (Melbourne) & New Zealand (Christchurch), and research in academia, clinic & industry (AstraZeneca, various UK Biotechs), he now holds a CSO Clinician Scientist Fellowship and links laboratory and clinical drug development in Edinburgh. He leads the Edinburgh Phase I Cancer Trials Unit and also has a specialty focus on renal cancers. His research spans cytotoxic, small molecule, metabolic and even psychological therapies, but his main focus is immunotherapies, where he is the clinical lead for the Edinburgh Cancer Immunology network.

Association Internationale de la Mutualité, brings together non-profit healthcare payers from inside and outside Europe. Some 200 million people within Europe have healthcare coverage through members of the AIM. It is a strategic platform for its members to exchange challenges and good practices, also in the field of pharmaceutical policy. AIM informs about developments within EU institutions and contributes to EU policy developments and projects. Menno is an economist by training and worked for the European Commission (DG SANCO, DG DEVCO, DG ECFIN) on healthcare system development, in specific with cross-border healthcare within the EU, pharmaceutical policies, relative effectiveness and HTA and sustainability of healthcare financing.

Dr. Mariola Söhngen, is responsible for Strategy, Partnering, Business Development, Research, Production as well as Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. Dr Mariola Söhngen has acquired a wealth of experience in the biotechnological and pharmaceutical industry. She is co-founder of both PAION AG and PAION Deutschland GmbH and served as a Managing Director since the foundation. In addition, from 2004 to 2015 she held the position of Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of PAION AG. In this function she was responsible for clinical drug development Phase I-IV, Regulatory, Drug Safety, Quality Assurance and other areas.

Dr Saint-Raymond is a French paediatrician. In 1995, she joined the French Medicines Agency, and in 2000 she joined the EMA where she was the Head of Special Areas (Paediatrics, Orphan Drugs, Scientific Advice, SME Office and Scientific Projects). She implemented the European Orphan Drug Regulation then the Paediatric Regulation. She has been an expert for the European Commission, the European Developing Countries Trial Partnership, the Canadian Council of Academies, and the US National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, a member of the UN Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for women and Children and Associate Prof of Paediatrics at Tor Vergata University Rome.

Tamás Bereczky works as the communications lead of the European AIDS Treatment Group (www.eatg.org). HIV+ since 2003, he served as a member of the board of directors of the EATG, and also as co-chair of the EC’s Civil Society Forum on HIV/AIDS 2013 to 2015. Originally a linguist and psychologists, Tamás is set to defend his PhD based on research into the significance and perspectives of patient organizations in Europe early 2017. He works as an advisor to EACS, UNAIDS and ECDC in matters concerning HIV, HCV, men having sex with men, substance use, and health policy. He is involved in EUPATI as editor, content producer and trainer. https://tatk.academia.edu/TamasBereczky

Luca has 18 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, having worked as Access Lead for the Secondary Care Business Unit of Ethicon Endo Surgery (J&J) at their European headquarters in Hamburg and as EU Access Director at Amgen for in-line products and in supporting the pipeline. In 2014 he has also been appointed as UK Access Lead at Amgen. He started his career in Italy and Germany, where he held various positions in consultancy companies focusing mainly on primary and secondary care re-organization and access to innovative medicines. Luca holds a degree in Political Science of the University of Milan and Master of Science in Health Management and Policy of Bocconi University in Milan.

Ailsa has an MSc in Health Economics from the York University and following her studies, worked as a research economist on a clinical trial at the University of Glasgow and thereafter as a health economist in the Public Health department of NHS Greater Glasgow. Ailsa joined the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) in 2006, becoming their lead health economist in 2008. In addition to the ongoing assessment of new medicines at SMC, Ailsa has contributed to a number of national groups including the Scottish Government Hepatitis C Treatment and Therapies subgroup, and The Patient Access Scheme Assessment Group.

Bettina Ryll, MD/PhD founded the Melanoma Patient Network Europe in 2013 and developed a special interest in patient-centric clinical research and drug development. Bettina’s current areas of focus are Adaptive Licensing/ MAPPS , innovative sustainable healthcare models and patient-centered risk/ benefit assessment tools. She lectures and advises on patient-centric drug development, member of ASCO and ISPOR and current chair of the ESMO Patient Advocacy Working Group.

Wija Oortwijn studied health sciences and holds a PhD in Medicine. Since 1993, she has been involved in the development of HTA & health system strengthening around the world, including Abu Dhabi. Currently, she is affiliated at Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands. She is working with Ministries of Health, the European Commission, World Bank, and WHO on institutionalizing HTA mechanisms for legitimate coverage decision making and capacity building in HTA. She is the President of HTAi, the international Society for HTA, as well as associate editor of the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care.

Prof John Dillon is Professor of Hepatology and Gastroenterology in the Division of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Dundee, based at Ninewells hospital, Dundee. He is also an Honorary Consultant with NHS Tayside, leading a busy general hepatology service and a research group. He chairs the Scottish HCV Action Plan Clinical Leads Group, is a member of the Scottish Government’s Ministerial advisory board for Blood Borne viruses and sexual health and is the President of the Scottish Society of Gastroenterology. He previously led the development group of the UK consensus guidelines for HCV and has chaired the Hepatitis C SIGN guideline development group.