Approach
The emergence of new diseases, changes in lifestyle, social evolution, the complexity of technological resources as well as many other factors, makes research of new therapeutic solutions an ever pressing necessity.
By the 1990s, we began our Research and Development (R&D) project. In the last decade we saw the birth of our own medicines. We are building our way into research inspired by our strong motivation: Keeping life in mind.
The BIAL Group invests over 20% of its turnover in R&D. This is our major pledge: we are committed to discovering and developing innovative medicines.
Our R&D centre in Portugal is staffed by international teams of highly qualified people. It comprises chemists, pharmacologists, biochemists, physicians and pharmacists, all of whom are dedicated to finding new drugs, particularly in neurosciences.
Our scientific team centralizes all the areas involved in the process of finding new medicinal products: chemical, pharmacological and clinical investigation. We collaborate with investigators and scientists from universities, industry and research centers to deliver the best solutions to health professionals, patients and their families.
In recognition of BIAL's commitment to research and development, the group is a member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), the respected federation of leading research firms in the European pharmaceutical sector.
Research Areas
Neurosciences
Neuroscience is the study of the nervous system, its development, structure and function, in health and in disease. Based on a multidisciplinary approach, neuroscientists focus on the biological mechanisms underlying brain functioning to ultimately provide a better understanding of the diseases and their etiology.
Neurological disorders affect one in every three people at some point of their life and impose a significant psychological, physical, and socioeconomic burden to patients, their families, and caregivers. BIAL actively works to deliver new treatments for people living with severe neurological conditions.
Our research over the last 30 years demonstrates our strong commitment towards Neuroscience. Since 1993, our scientists have successfully delivered two new medicines: an antiepileptic drug and a treatment for Parkinson's Disease symptoms.
At BIAL we are determined to discover, develop, and deliver innovative solutions that help to make real improvements to the lives of people living with severe neurological conditions. We will keep working inspired by the potential to transform their lives.
Rare Diseases
Rare diseases are mostly genetic, progressive, chronic, and debilitating diseases. Collectively rare diseases affect more than 300 million people worldwide and half of them are children. With powerful genomics, we now know there are around 11,000 rare diseases, most of them with a genetic cause.
Every year, new diseases are being uncovered as more genes are being discovered that are the underlying cause of these diseases. More importantly, 95% of these diseases don’t have a treatment and rare diseases a public health priority.
Non-profit organizations, patient advocacy groups, academic and industry research have led to enormous progress in rare disease understanding. In addition, emergence of new modalities like genomic medicine, including cell and gene therapies, have paved the path for curing rare diseases.
This R&D strategic area of ours is based on a strong programme of partnerships and collaborations, namely with other companies and biotechs, but also with academia, R&D centres of excellence and patient associations.
With these collaborations and protocols, we believe that we can find therapeutic solutions tailored to the needs of rare disease patients, with a focus on those that are more directly associated with our areas of expertise, such as monogenic epilepsy, as well as neurodegenerative diseases. The future holds great promise for treating rare diseases and we want to be a part of it.
Bibliography
1. The European Academy of Neurology Brain Health Strategy: One brain, one life, one approach - available at:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ene.15391 as seen in 16/08/2023.
2. National Library of Medicine - available at:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6952900/ as seen in 16/08/2023.
