Rare Disease Day Insight: Epilepsy Care Gaps in Pregnancy with UCB’s Andrea Wilkinson

In this week’s episode of the Xtalks Life Science Podcast, host Ayesha Rashid, Senior Life Science Journalist at Xtalks, spoke with Andrea Wilkinson, Global Head of Patient Engagement & Advocacy, Epilepsy & Neuromuscular at UCB, a company dedicated to developing solutions for autoimmune and neurological conditions, including epilepsy. The company has a growing commitment to addressing unmet needs in rare neurological diseases and underserved patient populations. With fewer than 5% of clinical trials including pregnant women, major knowledge gaps persist, particularly for women with epilepsy. In this episode, we look at new research that used social media listening across several countries to uncover treatment fears, uncertainty and barriers women face during pregnancy and motherhood, and what must change to better support informed decision-making. While epilepsy is not considered a rare disease, epilepsy in pregnancy represents a small, clinically complex population that faces unique risks and persistent care gaps. Andrea is a biotech and health tech executive who has led strategic product launches for over 30 breakthrough biopharmaceutical therapies. Focused on improving outcomes for patients, particularly in rare diseases, she has worked with early- to late-stage launch teams at AstraZeneca/MedImmune, Takeda and Sanofi Pasteur. She develops platform tools, stakeholder roadmaps and patient-centered advocacy campaigns to support first-in-class medicines and address access, reimbursement, regulatory and commercial barriers. Andrea is also an angel investor with Pipeline Angels and serves on the boards of Project Open Hand and the HBA Pacific Region. She holds a BA from Louisiana Tech University. Tune in to learn more about the unmet needs, challenges and advancements in the rare disease and epilepsy spaces. For more life science and medical device content, visit the Xtalks Vitals homepage. https://xtalks.com/vitals/ Follow Us on Social Media Twitter: https://twitter.com/Xtalks Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xtalks/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Xtalks.Webinars/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/xtalks-webconferences YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/XtalksWebinars/featured