Chiesi Group receives the EURORDIS Black Pearl Award for innovation in the field of Rare Disease.

Brussels, February 13, 2019 – Chiesi, an international research-focused healthcare Group (Chiesi Group), was awarded yesterday at the EURORDIS Black Pearl ceremony with the Company Award for Innovation. The EURORDIS Black Pearl Award is an annual event held in Brussels to recognise the outstanding achievements and exceptional work of people making a difference for the rare disease community. Taking place in February to mark the occasion of Rare Disease Day, this event celebrates the inspirational qualities of people living with a rare disease along with those who go that extra mile to make a difference to their lives.

Chiesi was nominated for its strong commitment to rare diseases and its support to policy development, as well as its strong pipeline for bringing to market a wide number of treatments, including products for extremely rare diseases.

“Chiesi Group is delighted to receive this award, a real sign of recognition that the Company is going in the right direction” commented Ugo Di Francesco, CEO, Chiesi Group. “This is the fulfilment of a journey made of commitment and dedication and gives us further motivation to continue this path to improve patients’ good health & wellbeing, and generate a meaningful and positive impact in patients’ quality life”.  

It is over 10 years since Chiesi has accepted the challenge posed by rare diseases, contributing to the birth and development of “Holostem Terapie Avanzate”. Collaboration with Holostem has generated a stem cell therapy platform which has delivered the first and only EMA approved stem cell therapy for the treatment of moderate to severe limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) due to physical or chemical ocular burns. Chiesi's commitment has expanded over time into the field of inherited metabolic diseases. Over the past few years the Company has been building a portfolio of products that may bring value to the Health Care System and change the lives of patients suffering from rare and ultra-rare lysosomal diseases. For example, Chiesi recently introduced an enzyme replacement therapy into several European markets for the treatment of alpha-mannosidosis, an ultra-orphan disease for which no alternative approved treatments exist. Chiesi has more recently also acquired the marketing rights of a delayed-release formulation of cysteamine, for the treatment of patients affected by nephropathic cystinosis, and for a chemically modified version of the recombinant protein alpha-Galactosidase-A, currently in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of Fabry disease.

“Chiesi places a great emphasis on collaboration with healthcare stakeholders and in finding new ways of working with patient groups/association to shape a patient friendly, sustainable policy landscape for Rare and ultrarare diseases in Europe”, added Alessandro Chiesi, Head of Region Europe, Chiesi Group. “We believe that only through a multi stakeholder dialogue it is possible to bring solutions aimed to tackle major challenges and to enhance the collective preparedness of our Health Care systems for present and future Patient Access to Innovative treatments that make the difference in patient life”.

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Chiesi Group

Based in Parma, Italy, Chiesi Farmaceutici is an international research-oriented group with over 80 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical sector, and is present in 27 countries. The group researches, develops and commercialises innovative medicines in the respiratory disease, special care and rare disease therapeutic areas. The Group’s Research & Development centre is based in Parma (Italy) and integrated with 4 other important research and development groups in France, the USA, the UK and Sweden, to promote its pre-clinical, clinical and registration programmes. The Group employs around 5,700 people.