 As if being ill isn’t bad enough, patients with a rare disease often have
trouble finding the right care and medication. And what treatment
is available to patients may differ from country to country, says Mr.
Eric Gervais, CEO of Medunik Canada. Treatment that is available to
a patient in one country might not be available to a patient suffering
from the same disease in the next. Addressing that issue, Medunik
aims to bring previously unavailable orphan drugs to patients with
rare diseases to Canada. “Strange as this may sound, it is a challenge
to convince pharmaceutical companies that there are substantial
revenue possibilities in Canada for them.”
In addition to serving as Executive Vice
President of Medunik Canada, Mr.
Gervais also is Executive Vice-President
of Duchesnay and one of the founding
members of the Corporate Council of
the National Organization for Rare
Disorders (NORD). Duchesnay is a
specialist in finding novel treatment
options for pregnant women, and is a
sister company of Medunik in Le Groupe
Pharmaceutique Boivin. “Pregnant
women needing treatment are
considered a relatively small population
in Canada,” Mr. Gervais explains. “At
Duchesnay, we are used to working with
small and vulnerable population groups.
Since I have been involved in the NORD
Corporate Council, I discovered that
other Canadian patient groups in the
rare disease space are medically
underserved. There are over a hundred
of rare treatments that are available in
US and in Europe, but not in Canada. So
we founded Medunik, in 2009, to
address this issue.”
 Mr. Gervais adds that 1 in 12 Canadians
suffers from a rare disease, and that
many of these rare diseases are chronic,
progressive, degenerative and lifethreatening.
“Sadly the country
lags behind the USA, Europe and
other countries in implementing a
comprehensive orphan drug policy.
Even though the Canadian market
represents 3.4 % of the world market,
pharmaceutical companies often
overlook the business opportunities
there. The barriers include that we have
two official languages here, as well as
two legal systems, and there is the
PMPRB (Patented Medicine Prices
Review Board), which dictates the price
of a drug, if it is patented. At Medunik we
aim to guide pharmaceutical companies
through this process. We offer a turn-key
deal, ranging from regulatory affairs to
market access and patient advocacy. We take full financial responsibility and do
everything we can to make the orphan
drug a huge commercial success in our
country.” Medunik Canada is unique in
the sense that it uniquely focuses on
getting orphan products to market. Mr.
Gervais points out that he has been able
to put together a prestigious advisory
board, with members who have a lot of
influence and who will add a lot of
credibility to the cause.
Privately held company Medunik is
based in the northern area of Montreal
and currently employs 50 people.
top - home
|
