Speaker

Dimitrios Athanasiou holds a BSc in Business Administration and an MBA in Financial Management.
He speaks three European languages and has more than 25 years of experience in Finance, Management and Business Development in an international business environment. When his son was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a deadly and incurable rare disease, he became a strong international patient advocate in Duchenne and rare diseases.
He was a board member of the European Patient Forum EPF, the umbrella of patient organisations in Europe. He is a founding member and serves on the Board of Directors of the Greek Patients Association, the 95 Rare Alliance Greece Association and is currently President of the Greek Rare Patients Association, while abroad he is a member of the Board of Directors of the World Duchenne Organization (WDO).
In 2014 he was appointed as a patient expert by EMA for DMD and has participated in several of EMA's pilot meetings on scientific advice, SAG, protocol assistance and CHMP. He was a member of PDCO for six years at the European Medicines Agency until 2023 and is currently a member of EMA's PCWP.