Highly commended
Swixx Rare Disease Academy – The Premier Educational Resource for Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)
Summary of work
Managing rare diseases is often challenging due to unspecific symptoms, the need for multidisciplinary collaboration, and a scarcity of experts—often only a few per country in the CEE region. Continuous education and experience sharing are therefore essential.
Swixx BioPharma, with its unique business model, represents multiple pharmaceutical companies that choose an indirect presence in specific markets. In rare diseases, Swixx partners with 8 companies to support access to treatment for nearly 20 conditions.
To better support healthcare professionals, Swixx previously conducted regional educational activities. However, the lack of a centralized repository meant that these efforts were fragmented and difficult for HCPs to revisit. We therefore developed the Swixx Rare Disease Academy—a digital platform serving as a central educational resource for HCPs from 20 CEE countries. The platform offers easy access to high-quality content on 15 rare diseases, that to date supported almost 1,300 HCPs from our countries in continuous learning. It includes webinars, symptom screening tools, patient testimonials, and other scientific resources, developed based on feedback from our country teams, HCPs, and Patient Advocacy Groups.
Our ongoing efforts aim to improve patient outcomes by fostering earlier diagnosis and better access to appropriate treatments through enhanced education and engagement.
Judges’ comments
“Swixx BioPharma has created an innovative and valuable platform addressing fragmentation in rare diseases. The judges were struck by the team’s dedicated approach to creating a widely-accessible educational portal. The platform was successful in terms of engagement and feedback, and the panel is excited to see what is to come in terms of lasting impact.”
