Dimitrios Athanasiou holds a BA in Business Administration and an MBA in Financial Management and has more than 25 years’ 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 backed up with the 14 month long 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 and as a Trainer since then.
As a strong and committed patient advocate for DMD and rare diseases, he serves the patient community through various roles.
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 is currently also a Board Member in European Patient Forum (EPF), the umbrella of the patient organizations in Europe and as a EURORDIS EPAC/TAG member.
Nationally in Greece he is the patient representative for Duchenne and Rare Diseases creating an active network of patient experts and a founding member of Greek Patient Association, Rare Diseases Greece and 95 Rare Alliance Greece in which he serves as a Board Member.
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.
Since 2014 he serves the Rare Disease Community as PDCO member in European Medicines Agency representing EURORDIS since 2017.