Rare diseases are becoming quite common. Or rather, research has now finally caught up and enabled us to build cures for a long range of genetic disorders and diseases, that would have been impossible to cure or treat just a few years ago. However, the production pipeline for these treatments is still missing, so the cost pr. treatment is high and the health systems have yet to embrace them all.

This was the background for the amazing visit to Denmark by Canadian entrepreneur and patient advocate Terry Pirovolakis that managed to do the impossible in record speed; he managed to find both funding and cure for his son Michael, suffering from SPG50. Having treated Michael, Terry has been on a quest to help other children across the world and also transform the pipeline for a series of other rare diseases.

NWA helped the Danish August Foundation to organise meetings with stakeholders in the Danish life science ecosystem – and also learned a lot about hope, perserverance, new potentials of collaboration between Canada and Denmark, and more.

Read more about the August Foundation here – and about the race against time to help Danish August from benefitting from a cure that are currently just waiting in a freezer. You can make a difference too by donating to the August Foundation. This will help fund this mission and add to the ability for gene therapy and personalised medicine to reach people in a just and timely manner.

In a collaboration with European University Cyprus, the Cambridge Medical Academy, European Health Futures Forum, Digital Mental Health Consortium, ElevateHealth, and IE Open NWA organised a conference in Nicosia, Cyprus, March 20-21, 2025

The conference focused pathways to integrate Eastern and Western medical practices with modern technology and research. During the conference, the latest developments in collaboration was shared including research initiatives in Europe, product development in China, innovations from a global community, and the knowledge sharing framework of the One Health One Road Alliance.

Read more about programme and speakers.

The European University of Cyprus and the Cyprus Medical Association has developed a high-level and target forum for both knowledge sharing and informal dialogue about cutting edge health technology and clinical discoveries that can improve health.

NWA was invited to present our work in the Nordic Health 2030 Movement and also the latest development of a model for assessment of multipartner collaboration framework for the Danish Life Science Cluster. This took place as part of a dedicated session one personalised medicine, organised by the Cambridge Medical Academy.

Held in Nicosia, Cyprus, 7-9 November 2024, the 12th IMBMC international congress event also allowed NWA to see the vibrant atmosphere in the last divided city in Europe – and both the challenge and potential of joint collaboration for a prosperous future for all. The alternative – or the cost of inaction – is enourmous.