Rare diseases

Rare diseases Agency Consulting firm Experts Specialists Consultancy

Optimize your market access and care pathways for patients with orphan diseases

For more than 30 years, Alcimed has been supporting its clients in their projects to innovate, understand and gain access to orphan drug markets.

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    They trust us

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    Logo_carre_Bayer
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    The challenges related to rare diseases and orphan diseases

    The rare disease market is experiencing strong growth and transformation across the world. Over 230 orphan drugs have been approved on the European market since early 2000.

    As a result, the typology of rare diseases, their challenges and their market situations are evolving significantly. This term now includes:

    • ultra-rare pathologies without any suitable medical solution,
    • relatively unknown rare diseases still awaiting solutions,
    • rare but well-known pathologies, with several treatment options, representing considerable progress for patients in established markets that are more similar to so-called “specialty” markets.

    Even though this market is developing, manufacturers, biotechs and research centers are facing many challenges, including:

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      How we support you in your projects related to rare diseases or orphan diseases

      For more than 25 years, Alcimed has been supporting its clients on many issues related to orphan and ultra-orphan diseases, in Oncology and outside Oncology. Indeed, we have carried out more than 150 projects in this field on more than 100 rare diseases for different actors such as:

      • National and European institutions and research centers (for example, the European Commission, INCa, AFM / Genethon)
      • European and North American biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies and professional associations (e.g. Genzyme (Sanofi), Shire (Takeda), Endo, Amgen, Chiron, Actelion (J&J), Alexion (Astrazeneca), PTC Therapeutics, Vertex, Sanofi, J&J, Roche, Merck-Serono, Novartis, Novagali (Santen), Spark Therapeutics (Roche), Insmed, Bone Therapeutics, Cellectis, NPS Pharma (Takeda), Intermune (Roche), EFPIA, EBE, EuropaBio etc.)
      • Patient associations (e.g. SFPA).

      The diversity of our clients (industrial companies, biotechs, research institutes, professional associations, national or European institutes, etc.), the geographic areas we explore, and the types of projects we develop, give us a global and in-depth understanding of the issues related to rare diseases.

      Our projects cover areas as diverse as new technologies and therapeutic approaches for orphan diseases, search for funding opportunities, preparation for the launch of new orphan drugs, understanding of disease management and patient care pathways, assessment of market and licensing opportunities, market access, pricing and reimbursement models, regulatory developments and operational support (patient identification, care pathways optimization and many more).

      What they say

      • TCV_Nestle_HS_miniature_site_EN_min
        Logo_carre_Nestle_HS

        Bernard Cuenoud

        Global Head of Research and Clinical Development

      • TCV_biomerieux_miniature_site_EN_min
        Logo_carre_SOBI

        Antoine Delmotte

        Immunology Complement & Speciality Care Business Unit Director

      Examples of recent projects carried out for our clients in rare diseases

      • Support for a pharmaceutical player in optimizing the emotional journey of patients with a rare disease

        One of our clients, a leading pharmaceutical player, wanted to improve the care of patients with a rare disease by developing a high value-added service offering that improves their well-being and quality of life throughout their care pathways (from diagnosis to palliative care).

        To do this, our team interviewed patients, caregivers and associations in each country concerned in order to identify the levers for improving their well-being and their quality of life that could be addressed by the development of services. Following this, our team pre-tested these service ideas with healthcare professionals, before organizing a workshop to co-construct a service development roadmap with the medical and marketing teams of our client.

        Ultimately, several services were deployed in pilot countries and then extended to other countries in the area, improving the patient journey and positioning our client as a major player in public health.

      • Roadmap for launching a new treatment for a rare genetic disease in Europe

        Alcimed supported a US biopharmaceutical client to define the launch strategy for its orphan drug in Europe. It then helped its client to structure a concrete and operational plan, both at a European level as well for each target country.

        As a real roadmap for each of the key functions of the company (medical, marketing, production, regulatory, sales), the plan extends from pre-launch (before obtaining the MA, the Marketing Authorization) until the first sales.

        Our team is also involved in regularly updating this plan, depending on internal or external developments around this launch.

      • Optimization of the care pathway for patients with a rare disease in Europe

        We have supported the European Medical Department of a pharmaceutical manufacturer in optimizing the care pathway for patients suffering from a rare respiratory disease in several European countries. As this rare disease is difficult to diagnose and often confused with more common respiratory diseases, the patient diagnosis time was too long (2 to 3 years). Our client wanted to position itself as a public health player by providing reference hospitals with Alcimed’s service to:

        1. Diagnose the current coordination of care between the different health actors registered on the patient journey
        2. Co-define with this multidisciplinary team an ideal patient care model and an associated action plan
        3. Implement actions defined at local and national level.

        The result for our client? A reduction in the time taken to diagnose patients and a general improvement in physician coordination, an increase in therapeutic support and a change of perspective for the sales teams.

      • Study of the regulatory framework: accessibility of treatment for orphan diseases

        Support for a player in the pharmaceutical industry in understanding the fundamental factors of market access for orphan drugs in 9 emerging countries.

        By taking stock of internal knowledge and collecting missing information in terms of the market and regulatory analysis in particular, Alcimed has enabled its client to obtain an overview of the regulations on orphan drugs in emerging countries and to classify these countries according to their level of accessibility.

      • Preparation of the setup of clinical trials in two rare diseases for a major pharmaceutical player

        Alcimed supported a major pharmaceutical player in developing its rare disease portfolio by identifying the best hospital centers to target for its clinical trials in two rare hematological disorders.

        First, we deciphered the care ecosystem in these two rare diseases (epidemiology, rare disease care network, care pathway, competitive clinical trials, KOLs) to identify potential investigational centers. Then we collaborated with the client to create a set of criteria for the initial selection of qualified centers for their clinical trials. Finally, we refined the most relevant centers by interviewing them and prioritizing the ones to target first.

        On this basis, 5 easily actionable centers were identified as 1st priority centers and have been approached by the client to undertake their clinical trials thanks to the connections we had made with the centers during the project.

      • Understanding of trends in rare diseases, with a focus on rare genetic diseases in neurology and pediatric oncology for a leader in the pharmaceutical industry

        Alcimed worked with a top pharmaceutical client to prepare and define their 2030 R&D strategy by understanding the main trends in rare genetic diseases in neurology and pediatric oncology.

        To do so, we identified the 4 key steps that lead to a successful launch of new products for rare diseases : Clinical development, Manufacturing, Regulatory and Pricing, Go-to-market models.

        Then, thanks to the interviews undertaken by the team with other laboratories working on rare diseases, we gathered all the best practices and successful examples for the launch of new therapies in this area. At the end, our team built an analysis framework summarizing the key insights which led to recommendations about the client’s R&D strategy on rare diseases.

        This investigation enabled the client to define the market opportunities for rare genetic diseases and viable business models in adequation to their strategy.

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