Dimitrios Athanasiou | BoD
WORLD DUCHENNE ORGANIZATION / UPPMD

Dimitrios Athanasiou holds a BA in Business Administration and an MBA in Financial Management. He speaks three European languages and has more than 25 years of experience with international business projects, working in various countries in consulting, developing, and reorganizing companies.
When his son was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a fatal and incurable rare disease, he became a strong international patient advocate in Duchenne and Rare Diseases. Having a passionate personality and technocratic background, he educated himself with basic rare disease and advocacy knowledge via the EURORDIS Summer School and then with the 14-month Patient Expert Course of the European Patient Academy of Therapeutic Innovation (EUPATI) acquiring basic biotech and regulatory knowledge, where he served as a Member of EUPATI’s Course Committee for the next year, representing the patient voice. Being an EUPATI fellow, he established the Greek EUPATI National Liaison Team. He is a board member of the World Duchenne Organization (WDO) promoting a vibrant network of patient organizations where children with DMD will have access to the best care irrelevant to where they live. He was a board member of the European Patient Forum EPF, the umbrella of the patient organizations in Europe. He is a founding member and serves on the Board of the Greek Patients Association and is currently the Vice Chair of Rare Diseases Greece. In his role as a patient advocate, he interacts with Regulators, HTA authorities, Industry, and Academia promoting the rights of patients with rare diseases to have access to the best care possible and to new, safe, and affordable drugs for rare diseases. In 2014 he was nominated patient expert by EMA for DMD and has participated in several of EMA's Scientific Advice, SAG, Protocol Assistance, and CHMP pilot meetings for Duchenne, providing the essential patient representative perspective when companies request regulatory advice or approval.
He was a PDCO member in the European Medicines Agency till 2023 and is currently a PCWP member.