Idis and CheckOrphan Announce New Online Rare Disease Access Programs Register

WEYBRIDGE, England and BASEL, Switzerland, February 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

• Listing of Access Programs pulls together publicly-available information and unique data that is not available anywhere else 
• Novel and unique resource for the rare disease community in conjunction with Rare Disease Day 2015  

Idis Ltd, a global leader in the design and implementation of Managed Access Programs, and CheckOrphan, the leading news and information source for rare diseases, announce the launch of a new online Access Programs Register, hosted at http://www.checkorphan.org/access-programs in honor of Rare Disease Day 2015.

"Idis is thrilled to be launching this important initiative with CheckOrphan, to create a register which is compliant and ethical, and which we hope will be a valuable resource for the rare disease community," explained Simon Estcourt, President, Managed Access Programs at Idis. "Our hope is that the register will allow Idis and other Access Program providers to better serve physicians who are seeking access to specific medicines for their patients who have no alternative treatment options."

The register has been developed by CheckOrphan, in collaboration with Idis, to create a resource for the rare disease community who wish to access a specific medicine, but find that it is currently unavailable to them.

Access Programs are regulated frameworks put in place by pharmaceutical manufacturers to allow physicians to request access to specific medicines where their patient is unable to access that medicine through clinical trials or via the usual commercial routes. A specific medicine may be unavailable to a patient because it is not commercially available in their country, or may still be in development.

The decision to treat a patient as part of an Access Program is based on the clinical judgment of their physician, and is applicable where there is a genuine unmet medical need and no alternative treatments available. In the context of such programs, it is a patient's physician who makes the initial request to the provider who is implementing the program.

"It has been a pleasure to work on this collaboration with Idis, to create a much-needed source of information for the communities that we support," explained Robert Derham, Founder at CheckOrphan. "The register is the first of its kind focussed on rare diseases, and some of the information on the register cannot be found anywhere else in the public domain. We are honored to be involved in pioneering this with Idis."

If you are a physician operating in the rare disease setting and seeking access to a medicine for a patient with no alternative treatment options, please visit the register at: http://www.checkorphan.org/access-programs

The Access Programs register hosted at CheckOrphan is open to any companies who are providing access to physicians and their patients via these routes. If you are a manufacturer, or specialist provider that wishes to list on the register, please contact: robert.derham@checkorphan.org

About Idis 

Idis has nearly 30 years of experience of partnering with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to create regulatory-compliant, ethical access to medicines for healthcare professionals and their patients with unmet medical needs. Since 1987, Idis has developed and managed access to thousands of medicines from every therapeutic category, impacting the lives of hundreds of thousands of patients in countries around the world.  

Idis leverages decades of experience, regulatory insight, and a thorough understanding of local and global requirements to create access to medicines at every stage of a product's lifecycle from pre-approval to market exit, and in times of unexpected production shortages.

The company's European headquarters are located in Weybridge, United Kingdom, and its North American headquarters are located in Princeton, NJ. For more information about Idis please visit http://www.idispharma.com.

About CheckOrphan 

CheckOrphan is the leading news and information resource for rare diseases and orphan products. CheckOrphan offers users an interactive and dynamic platform for all these diseases, which allows visitors to be updated daily on all the latest news and information and direct them to the right sources for questions, collaboration, partnerships and more. CheckOrphan is also a non-profit organization located in Basel, Switzerland and Santa Cruz, California. Visit http://www.checkorphan.org and sign up for a free daily newsletter to stay informed.