Rüdiger is a scientist by training with a Ph.D. in pharmacology who has been working in the pharmaceutical industry for 25 years. He held various roles in Sales and Marketing before serving as Business Unit Director in Germany for large pharmaceutical corporations (J&J, BMS). He worked as General Manager for Germany and Central / Eastern Europe for Shire (today part of Takeda) before founding the first foreign affiliate for Ultragenyx, a company exclusively focused on Rare Diseases with a high unmet medical need, as General Manager in 2016. Rüdiger has launched multiple Orphan Drugs in Germany, Poland, and other CEE countries, represented his company in national and international industry associations working groups on Orphan Drugs and has ample experience in pricing and commercializing Orphan Drugs in different health care systems.
Dairine is a pharmaceutical industry executive with 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical, biologic and device industries, including 9 years in senior management positions in the Irish Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) working with both the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Commission. She led the establishment of the National Health Regulatory Agency for Pharmaceutical Products in Bahrain and has been involved in the successful global clinical development and post-marketing management of many pharmaceutical products across multiple therapeutic areas, many for rare diseases. She was global Vice President, Strategic Regulatory Affairs at ICON for 2 years before co-founding and successfully leading the start-up phase of Open Orphan Plc, an Irish CRO for orphan drugs.
She is currently a NED for Soleno Therapeutics Europe Ltd., Omnispirant Ltd. and Reneurx Ltd. and serves on the board of Fighting Blindness as well as providing strategic support to pharma companies focussed on development of a novel therapies for rare diseases.
Dairine is a pharmacist and holds a PhD in pharmacy and a certificate in international business.