World EPA Congress 2025
March 5 - 6, 2025 | Amsterdam, the Netherlands
We are excited to announce that we will be sponsoring, attending and speaking at World EPA Congress, world’s leading healthcare evidence, pricing and access congress.
Make sure you do not miss our panel “Sustainable Patient Access Through Value-Based Reimbursement Strategies” and our presentations. See all details below!
Take this opportunity to connect with our experts on-site and learn how we can design tailor-made solutions to maximize your commercial success.
About Our Presentations and Speakers
Reimbursement, Health Equity, and Sustainability for Market Access Success
Date and Time: Wednesday, March 5, 17:25
This session explores how the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive can influence payer decisions in the future. Can reimbursement of tomorrow require more than clinical and economic value? Will it demand alignment with sustainability and health equity goals?
Learn how companies can effectively prepare to communicate their commitment to sustainability and equity to strengthen market access, secure reimbursement, and drive long-term success in a value-based healthcare system in the future.
Speaker: Nerea Blanqué-Catalina, Senior Partner, Pricing, Access and Sustainability
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Nerea Blanqué-Catalina is a market access and pricing expert with leadership experience at international pharmaceutical companies.
Nerea works on operational pricing projects, including implementation of pricing policies, global price corridor setting, global value dossier design/messages, and local adaptations. She performs market access and pricing department transformation projects and has experience in early market access projects, including ethnographic point of view in clinical trials, target product profile assessments, pricing due diligence, and cross-border trade analysis.
Nerea holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in pharmacy, Universitat de Barcelona; a research diploma in immunology from Háskoli Islands, Iceland; and a postgraduate degree in business consulting, Glamorgan University, Wales. She completed a senior executive program, PDD, at IESE Business School, Barcelona, and a leadership program in healthcare at Harvard Business School. Nerea is a lecturer in market access and pricing at EADA Business School, IQS School of Management, and IESE Business School, among others.
Rare but Real: Transforming Challenges Into Opportunities for Rare Disease Patients
Date and Time: Thursday, March 6, 12:20
Rare diseases affect millions globally, yet only 5% have approved treatments. This presentation will address barriers to care through advocacy, innovative pricing models, and collaborative research. Discover impactful data, real case studies, and actionable insights on the realities of rare diseases. The presentation will include such topics as the role of patient advocacy in speeding up diagnoses, value-based pricing to improve affordability, and public-private partnerships advancing research.
Join us to explore practical strategies for improving diagnosis, affordability, and collaboration to create real-world solutions.
Speaker: Andrea Mantovani, Partner, Consulting, Value, Access & Pricing
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Andrea joined Alira Health in 2021, with more than 25 years of management consulting and pharmaceutical industry experience. His expertise is in strategy, marketing and sales, public affairs, pricing, and market access. Andrea’s work focuses on international projects across therapeutic areas, including oncology, hematology, cardiometabolic, immunology, and rare diseases.
Prior to joining Alira Health, Andrea worked at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) and held senior management roles for big pharma companies in the UK, Spain, and Italy, including Sanofi, Amgen, Abbott, and Novartis, where he spent five years at the regional headquarters, overseeing activities in 28 countries and spearheading transformational value and access projects.
Andrea holds a degree in marketing and economics from the University of Verona, and an MBA from SDA Bocconi Business School, including courses in healthcare and pharmaceuticals. He is a contract professor for market access and public affairs at LUISS Business School and an external lecturer for the MAMIL Master, a joint program by H-Farm and Humanitas University.
Panel: Sustainable Patient Access Through Value-Based Reimbursement Strategies
Date and Time: Thursday, March 6, 14:45
Value-based healthcare is transforming patient access to innovation while helping payers navigate uncertainties related to clinical evidence gaps and rising costs that threaten system sustainability. However, its adoption in healthcare reimbursement remains uneven across markets and therapeutic areas due to concerns about complexity and administrative burden. This panel will bring together key stakeholders—including payers, industry leaders, providers, and patients—to explore both the opportunities and challenges of value-based healthcare. We will also examine potential solutions, such as digitalization, to streamline implementation and drive sustainable improvements.
Speakers:
- Sania Chouman, Global Head of Access Innovation, Takeda
- Vivian Mendonca, Senior Vice President, Global Head – Value Evidence and External Affairs (G-VEEA), Menarini Group
- Maria Cavaller Bellaubi, Patient Engagement and Therapeutic Development Director, EURORDIS
- Dr. Ulf Persson, PhD, Senior Advisor and Former CEO of the Swedish Institute for Health Economics (IHE)
Moderator: Ahmad Bechara, Executive Vice President, Global Pharma
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With over 20 years of experience in consulting services, the pharmaceutical industry and academic research, Ahmad is a seasoned professional in healthcare innovation, recognized for his strategic leadership and unwavering commitment to industry transformation.
In his prior roles, Ahmad led the Global Market Access Practice at Alira Health, where he spearheaded numerous global pricing and market access initiatives and demonstrated his expertise in developing actionable strategies across diverse therapeutic areas, including auto-immune and inflammatory diseases, cardiometabology, haematology, oncology, and rare diseases. His contribution to the successful launch of more than 15 blockbusters underscores his ability in navigating complex market dynamics.
Prior to his tenure at Alira Health, Ahmad dedicated over 7 years to various roles at Novartis, including within the Global Market Access Team.
Ahmad holds a PhD in Genetics and Neuroscience from the University of Claude Bernard, Lyon, France where he researched the molecular mechanisms of topographic brain map formation and plasticity. He has authored and co-authored multiple publications in the market access/pricing, genetic and neuroscience fields.
Meet Our Delegate
Our speakers will be joined onsite by Aaron Grandy as delegate.
Aaron Grandy
Principal, Market Access and Pricing
Discover Our Latest Publications
Article
This article explores the role of environmental sustainability in healthcare and share examples of current initiatives from various markets worldwide.
Article
Experts Annabel de Maria and Ahmad Bechara share how engaging rare disease patients in the HTA process gives them the opportunity to have a meaningful impact.
Article
This interview explores how engaging directly with patients can help pharma and biotech companies gather crucial data that strengthens the evidence supporting their market access efforts.
Article
With the JCA now in effect, we spoke with Andrea Mantovani, Alira Health Partner, Market Access and Pricing, about its impact on pharmaceutical companies hoping to bring new therapies to market.
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