Targeting Rare Diseases
and Critical Care
AOP Health is the European pioneer for integrated therapies for rare diseases and in critical care.
As a privately owned company AOP Health is devoted to long-term commitment, high quality, and continuity. For a small number of very special diseases the company is the sole supplier of some key therapeutic agents throughout the world.
Founding
Why did you found AOP Health?
“When founding AOP Health in 1996 – as AOP Orphan – my aim was to make targeted treatment available to the maximum number of patients with rare diseases. I realized that these patients are frequently left alone in their suffering. As an entrepreneur the complex environment of rare diseases was a great challenge, but also an opportunity to be successful in this niche.”
What role did AOP Health’s sense of entrepreneurial responsibility play in the founding of the company?
“Entrepreneurial responsibility is no additionally imposed obligation for AOP Health, but the attitude that played an indispensable role at the very time the company was founded. AOP Health’s objective to provide effective help for persons with rare diseases originated from this sense of responsibility and has made the company what it is today.“
AOP Orphan – now AOP Health – was founded in 1996 by Dr. Rudolf Widmann with the aim of developing and providing therapy options for patients with rare diseases, and then introducing the therapy options first in Austria, the European core countries of AOP Health, and finally in the international market.
“I worked for several years in large international pharmaceutical companies and observed that there were some therapy options for rare diseases, but they did not reach the large majority of the patients.”
Facts & Figures
Over the past 25 years, the group has become an established provider of integrated therapy solutions from its headquarters in Vienna, its subsidiaries and representative offices throughout Europe and the Middle East, as well as through partners worldwide. Since the very start the company has been focused on the individual needs and treatments of patients. Based on its research-centered approach, AOP Health has a profound understanding of rare diseases and critical care. Therefore, the company has been able to position itself as an innovative front-runner in the development of effective therapies and drugs.
Team
"Since our establishment, we have had a very clear mission: to transform the daily lives of people with these pathologies through a deep understanding of the mechanisms of the disease, the specific needs of patients and by working closely with the healthcare professionals involved in their treatment."
"Our aim is to respond to the individual needs of the patients and to offer them therapeutic options that contribute to improving their lives.”
Vision & Mission
The Future
Thanks to our advancements in the field of therapies, an increasing number of patients survive their disease or are able to live with it for a longer period of time. In the next few decades, personalized medicine, individual treatment opportunities will emerge more and more as the standard in AOP Health’s therapy concepts as well.
Novel technologies such as next-generation sequencing (NGS) will play an equally crucial role as the increasing quantities of big data and conclusions derived from the daily lives of patients also beyond the strictly regulated conditions of clinical trials, e.g. real-world evidence.
Furthermore, the increasing health competence, health literacy of patients and their family members will also determine the future of pharma and health care sector.