- Japan, South Korea, and the African subcontinent are now covered by the Alliance.
- With the addition of two new WODA members – Nxera Pharma (formerly Sosei Heptares) and Veld Pharmaceuticals – WODA now provides access to over 200 million rare disease patients.
TOKYO and ZUG, Switzerland, April 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The World Orphan Drug Alliance (WODA), a global alliance of commercial distributors dedicated to providing access to treatments for rare diseases and specialty medicines in complex markets around the world, has expanded its reach to include Japan and South Korea, as well as the African subcontinent.
The addition of two new members – Nxera Pharma (formerly Sosei Heptares) and Veld Pharmaceuticals – brings the total number of countries covered by WODA to 156 and provides access to 200 million rare disease patients.
This expansion is an important step towards WODA's goal of providing access to rare disease treatments to patients worldwide. “Adding Nxera Pharma, formerly Sosei Heptares, in Japan and South Korea serves to round out our Asian offering. Nxera Pharma was a logical partner given its depth of experience in those markets, as well as being a net producer of innovation to the world,” said Patrick Jordan, Chairman of WODA. “The African subcontinent, with over one billion lives, has historically been underserved with respect to novel therapies, and the addition of Veld Pharmaceuticals will dramatically increase access.”
The Japan and South Korean region will be covered by Nxera Pharma, a technology enabled biopharma company with world-class drug design capabilities and highly experienced clinical development and commercialization teams in the territories. In addition to several products already being commercialized in Japan, Nxera Pharma is focused on accelerating the development of life-changing medicines by investing in science and technology. It has an extensive portfolio of over 30 active in-house and partnered programs advancing from discovery through to late clinical stage with multiple leading pharma and biotech companies.
Chris Cargill, President & CEO of Nxera Pharma, commented: “Nxera Pharma is delighted to be a part of WODA’s expansion. People with rare or orphan diseases in Japan and South Korea deserve better access to effective, life-changing medicines. At Nxera Pharma, we are committed to delivering this and I am confident that being part of this global alliance will support our collective mission to provide the best new therapies to patients in need.”
WODA also has a strong new member in Veld Pharmaceuticals. “Veld’s goal is to be the one-stop solution for rare and orphan products on the African subcontinent. Named after a type of grassland in Southern Africa that is critical to the ecosystem, Veld aims to be the equivalent to patients suffering from rare and debilitating diseases,” added Sandra Lambert, CEO of Veld Pharmaceuticals.
The Alliance now provides a broad outreach with a local focus through 12 separate entities: Specialised Therapeutics (Australia, New Zealand, and South East Asia), Medis (Central and Eastern Europe & Nordics), RareStone (Greater China), Path Pharma (Greece, Cyprus, Malta), CTS (Israel), OrphanDC (Latin America), Vector Pharma (Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey), Orpharm (Russia and the CIS region), EffRX Pharmaceuticals (Switzerland), Veld Pharmaceuticals (the African subcontinent), Nxera Pharma (Japan, South Korea), and its global consultancy partner Decisive Consulting.
About WODA
The World Orphan Drug Alliance (WODA) is a global alliance of commercial distributors focused on providing access to treatments for rare diseases and specialty medicines in complex markets around the world. WODA aims to provide comprehensive support to pharmaceutical and biotech companies with rare disease, oncology, and highly specialized therapeutics portfolio, starting from Named Patient Programs through to full commercialization.
More about WODA: www.woda-alliance.com
About Nxera Pharma
Nxera Pharma (formerly Sosei Heptares) is a technology powered biopharma company, in pursuit of new specialty medicines to improve the lives of patients with unmet needs in Japan and globally.
In addition to several products being commercialized in Japan, we are advancing an extensive pipeline of over 30 active programs from discovery through to late clinical stage internally and in partnership with leading pharma and biotech companies. This pipeline is focused on addressing major unmet needs in some of the fastest-growing areas of medicine across neurology, GI and immunology, metabolic disorders and rare diseases, and leverages the power of our unique and industry leading GPCR-targeted structure-based drug discovery “NxWave™” platform to provide a sustainable source of best- or first-in-class candidates.
Nxera employs over 350 talented people at key locations in Tokyo and Osaka (Japan), London and Cambridge (UK), Basel (Switzerland) and Seoul (South Korea) and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (ticker: 4565).
For more information, please visit www.nxera.life
LinkedIn: @NxeraPharma | X: @NxeraPharma | YouTube: @NxeraPharma
Media contact for WODA
Tina Vojnovic, Head of Corporate Communication and PR
tina.vojnovic@woda-alliance.com, +386 41 744 735
Media and Investor Relations for Nxera Pharma
Kentaro Tahara, VP Investor Relations and Corporate Strategy
Maya Bennison, Communications Manager
+81 (0)3 5210 3399 | +44 (0)1223 949390 | IR@Nxera.life
Mark Swallow, Frazer Hall, Erica Hollingsworth – MEDiSTRAVA Consulting
+44 (0)203 928 6900 | Nxera@medistrava.com
