Brussels – The Anticancer Fund is adding to its dedicated team with the appointment of Patricia Vandamme as Policy Officer. Patricia will support the organisation in engaging with decision makers, patient organisations and institutions, to bring the benefit of drug repurposing in oncology to their attention. 

Patricia Vandamme joins the Anticancer Fund to leverage the policy work of the organisation. The Anticancer Fund has a track record of contributing to the development of policy frameworks and regulations in order to increase benefits for cancer patients. Our main goal is to bring more treatment options to cancer patients that lead to better outcomes and/or improve their quality of life.

Patricia will dedicate a significant part of her time to drug repurposing or finding new therapeutic options for existing medicines. We believe drug repurposing is the underrated champion of innovation in oncology and we have been building up expertise in issues around health policy, collaboration with drug developers, and regulatory obstacles in this field for many years.

Drug repurposing on the agenda

The Anticancer Fund laid the foundations of the milestones achieved in drug repurposing in the last years. Through our European policy work initiated in 2016 we contributed to putting drug repurposing on the agenda of the European Commission, resulting in a specific call of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to support a pilot project for research.

One of the selected projects is REMEDi4ALL, an ambitious research initiative that wants to make cost-effective repurposed medicines more widely available in areas where there are high unmet medical needs. 24 organisations, amongst which the Anticancer Fund, are collaborating in this. Patricia will support the activities of the REMEDi4ALL-consortium, together with other team members of the Anticancer Fund.

‘We are happy to welcome Patricia. She will play an important role in connecting with peer organisations, drug developers and policymakers to make sure drug repurposing makes a leap forward in oncology, as cancer patients urgently need more costly-effective treatments options’, says Lydie Meheus, managing director of the Anticancer Fund.

Expertise in regulatory affairs

Patricia has been working more than 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry, both in Belgian and global roles. She is highly skilled in regulatory affairs, pharmacovigilance and quality assurance. As a pharmacist she is fully committed to the health and wellbeing of patients.

’I am thrilled to join the Anticancer Fund team. So far, I’ve spent my entire career in the health industry and patients have always been at the centre of my attention. Drug repurposing has – rightfully so – gained visibility, and I look forward to contributing to the leverage of it, as it is such a potential area’, says Patricia Vandamme, policy officer of the Anticancer Fund.

Read more about the REMEDI4ALL project
Discover the REMEDI4ALL website
Find out more about our activities in policy
Meet our team