ADVISORY BOARD

This section provides an overview of the ASCERTAIN Advisory Board, including information about the members and their motivation to participate.

There are renowned experts from different stakeholder groups who contribute their professional expertise and their different perspectives to our work.

Antonella Cardone

Antonella Cardone is the CEO of Cancer Patients Europe, a pan-European all-cancer patient association. She’s a Patient Advocacy Expert and Advisor to the Board of Pancreatic Cancer Europe (PCE), uniting physicians, patients, politicians, journalists, academia, and industry, and she is a member of Inspire2Live. Antonella led the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC) and served as Executive Director of the Fit for Work Global Alliance. With 25 years of nonprofit experience in health, social, and employment sectors, she also directed the Global Smoke-free Partnership of the American Cancer Society. Antonella holds Master’s degrees in Science and Business Administration. She has been on the Boards of All. Can and Pancreatic Cancer Europe, where she was vice-chair.

Carmen Sanges

Carmen Sanges holds a PhD in Medical Biotechnology and is currently the EU initiatives scientific project lead of the Cellular Immunotherapy Program at the University Clinic Würzburg. Her recent experience includes coordinating and advising numerous initiatives funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 framework, including T2EVOLVE. She is particularly involved in developing synergistic approaches across multiple EU consortia in the field of cell and gene therapy, with the aim of leveraging the potential, and accelerating the achievements of the different projects.

Diogo Teixeira Pereira

Eda Ömür

Eda is residing in the Netherlands with Turkish heritage. At 31 years of age, she is a resilient individual living with Sickle Cell Disease, specifically Type SS. Her journey with this condition has been marked by significant challenges, including undergoing 12 surgeries, having a hip prosthesis, a shoulder prosthesis, and a host of other medical experiences. However, it’s her firm belief that strength as Sickle Cell patients is something that often goes unnoticed by those on the outside. This underscores the critical importance of raising awareness about this condition. In her quest to make a difference, she has established her own patient organization, “Voices of Sickle Cell,” and she proudly represents the Netherlands within the European Sickle Cell Federation (ESCF). Her ultimate aspiration is for a day to come when, upon disclosing that she has Sickle Cell, it elicits understanding and empathy, rather than mere indifference. Living with chronic pain is akin to enduring a relentless battle, but living with a condition that few comprehends presents its own unique set of challenges.

Gergana Kyosovska-Peshtenska

Gergana, a Molecular Biologist and certified patient advocate, excels in designing and managing patient support programs for cancer patients. From 2018 to 2021, she held managerial roles at the Institute for Medical Research (IMR), overseeing personalized medicine projects and validating studies. With over nine years’ engagement at the Bulgarian Association for Personalized Medicine (BAPEMED), she manages projects and fosters patient advocacy initiatives. Gergana spearheads the international project “SCREEN4CARE,” expediting rare disease diagnosis through newborn genetic screening. Additionally, she contributes to the FUTURESILIENCE project, focusing on societal resilience creation via innovative co-creation labs. In 2023, she managed local projects promoting personalized medicine awareness and digital health for civic engagement in healthcare for Ukrainian refugees in Bulgaria.

Izabela Kulikowska

Izabela is active in the PNH space in Poland since 2021, as one of the founding members of “One in a Million – PNH Patients’ Association”. As member of association she took part in several webinars and debates about PNH patient situation and needs in Poland. The main goal is to improve polish patients’ quality of life. She was involved in developing the report “PNH Patients – Situation in Poland”, which shows that PNH impact every aspect of life. She is 30, working as Registered Nurse and is a mom of one, living in the countryside.

lOUIS bERTIN

Dr. Louis Bertin is a Hospital Practitioner at CHAM and Chief Pharmacist at Hesdin Hospital. He obtained his Hospital Pharmacy Doctorate in 2019 from Paris Cité University. Dr. Bertin also holds a MSc. in Health Economics and a Degree in Public health administration management. Before practicing as hospital pharmacist, he worked at the European Commission’s Directorate for Health in the Unit focused on Health Technology Assessment and as a Policy Officer in the French Ministry of Health. Since 2021, he is Co-Editor Chief of the Journal de Pharmacie Clinique and is President of the association Européenne de Formation des Pharmaciens (EFP). In 2021, Dr. Bertin joined the Board of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) as Director of Professional Development and became Director of Finances in 2023.

Maria Piggin

Martin Eijgenhuijsen

Martin is a passionate Long-Term Equity Investor in the Global Healthcare Sector. With over three decades of unwavering commitment to the global healthcare sector, Martin has established himself as a seasoned and dedicated equity investor. Throughout his career, Martin has exhibited a rare blend of financial acumen and industry experience. Martin has been on the forefront of identifying groundbreaking healthcare opportunities, from pharmaceuticals to biotechnology and medical devices. His visionary approach to investments is characterized by the pursuit of sustainable, long-term growth opportunities, frequent management engagements and hence delivering solid returns to clients. He firmly believes that by investing wisely in healthcare, we can contribute to a healthier and more prosperous world while generating substantial value for society.

Matias Olsen

Matias Olsen is the Senior Manager, Public Affairs and Policy for the European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (EUCOPE). Matias supports EUCOPE on key topics, covering among others, implementation of EU HTA, advanced diagnostics, Real-World Evidence, the Patent Package, Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and relevant market access topics. He coordinates members’ thematic working groups, including the P&R/Market Access Working Group, the Genomics Working Group and the EU HTA Regulation Task Force. Matias has previously advocated on behalf of European cancer patients and worked in the Norwegian Social Security Administration, with reimbursement of medical devices and coordination of social security within the EU/EEA.

Michael Hudecek

Nenad MiljkoviĆ

Dr. Nenad Miljković is President-elect of European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP), President of the European Council for Pharmacy Education Accreditation (ECPhA), President of Hospital Pharmacy Section of Serbia and the Head of Hospital Pharmacy Services at the Institute of Orthopaedics Banjica in Belgrade, Serbia. Dr. Nenad Miljković is a specialist in clinical pharmacy, he also holds a PharmD and a dual Master degree in European Public Health obtained at the University of Sheffield in the UK, and at the University Sorbonne Paris Cite in France. Dr. Nenad Miljković’s research focuses on health risk and patient clinical needs assessment including therapeutic substitution in medicine shortages. Between 2016 and 2021, Nenad served as the COST Action 15105 WG Lead and between 2021 and 2023 as a scientific advisory board member of the IMMUNION project.

Peter Kapitein

As the founder of Inspire2Live (The only global patient advocacy organisation with professional volunteers) and in his role as Patient Advocate, Peter connects patients, researchers, clinicians, industry, payers and regulators to further cancer research, treatments and care. He does this by lobbying public authorities, healthcare organisations, insurance companies and research institutes. Peter organises congresses and gives lectures and talks to enable patients and society to fight cancer whilst improving quality of life of patients and their loved ones. He also writes blogs, articles and books on these topics. Peter is a long-time researcher of the medical-industrial complex, a network of interactions between healthcare stakeholders which does not always have the needs and interests of the patient at heart and this needs to change. In October 2012, the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam awarded Peter with an honorary doctorate for his work connecting global stakeholders across the medical-industrial complex. Peter is also one of the founders of Alpe d’HuZes, a charity foundation which is most famous in Europe for its annual mountain cycling event that has raised almost 200 million euros to date for cancer research.

Simon Eggington

Simon Eggington is a health policy director at Medtronic, where he has worked since 2009. He supports reimbursement activities globally, specializing in cost-effectiveness and budget impact modelling. Prior to this, he worked as a health economist in consulting and academia. He has a background in mathematical modelling and has a BSc (Hons) in Applied Statistics and an MSc in Operational Research.

Yannis Natsis

Yannis Natsis is the Director of the European Social Insurance Platform (ESIP), the umbrella organisation bringing together 45 national statutory social security institutions from 18 countries. ESIP is the voice of social protection and security in Europe or as Yannis puts it one of Europe’s truest treasures. He has more than 10 years of experience in EU advocacy and policymaking. Prior to joining ESIP in February 2022, he led the advocacy for better and affordable medicines at the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA). In May 2019, he was appointed by EU Member States to the Management Board of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), a position he held until December 2021. Additionally, Yannis has been a Board member of the European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG), the leading EU health policy platform since 2018.