Her solution at a glance: Caroline Kant and her organization EspeRare is usually caring for people suffering from rare life-threatening diseases that mainstream medical institutions do not know how to treat. She has developed a way to move forward and reposition existing drugs as treatments for rare diseases, in a way that they become accessible and affordable for these underserved patients. One of the treatment in EspeRare’s portfolio has the potential to address the inflammation triggered by Covid-19. The team is working under high pressure to examine this possible solution to the pandemic.

The mission of the social enterprise before Corona:

Advancing treatments for rare diseases together! 

Caroline is accelerating the cost-effective development of unexplored therapeutic opportunities in rare diseases. In a health system that lacks incentives to drive the recycling of previously developed drugs for rare diseases, EspeRare serves as a non-commercially driven trusted broker. Oftentimes one thing is missing to combine the various pieces of the puzzle to treat a rare disease: coordination and connection! Caroline and her team coordinate the complicated process among the main actors: patient groups, regulatory bodies, clinical research partners, and pharmaceutical companies and they act as patient voice integrators and mediators. Through this unique positioning EspeRare brings all pieces of the solution together – to advance the discovery of new treatments for underserved patients. 

What changed with Corona?

Part of Esperare’s work was shifted by the challenges of the coronavirus. Even though Covid-19 is not a rare disease, it is one that the medical system struggles to solve and treat efficiently. EspeRare will invest energy to develop a medical solution against Covid-19. To do so it will deploy its scientific and drug development know-how, engage its biomedical network and apply its proprietary drug repositioning approach. 

Time! The clock is ticking, people are being infected with the novel virus and doctors have no sufficient answer yet. The attempt to find a medical solution and develop a drug that can treat patients and decrease the mortality rate of this pandemic is an important race to win. 

There is hope: One of EspeRare’s treatments, Rimeporide, that is currently in clinical development for a rare pediatric disease, has the potential to address the inflammation triggered by the Covid-19 virus infection and thus decrease medical complications and mortality rate associated with the infection.    

If Rimeporide’s therapeutic benefit is confirmed, Esperare estimated that this treatment could treat 10-20% of patients with moderate to severe vascular inflammatory symptoms triggered by Covid-19.  

Ashoka: What is inspiring you and giving you hope that we can overcome this crisis?

Caroline: “I am inspired by the collaborative momentum that has emerged around the Covid-19 fight. This makes me hopeful that by joining forces and coming together to overcome this pandemic we are  also learning to collaborate and create win-win’s on a global level. Ultimately we will find innovative ways to collaborate for a more sustainable future.“