Over 60 delegates from Danish pharmaceutical company ALK (Allergology Laboratory Kopenhagen) arrived in Dublin for a three-day meeting entitled “Helping more people with allergy get better care”. This is a briefing meeting for the Irish, UK and Benelux teams for the rest of 2022.
ALK is a global, research-driven pharmaceutical company focusing on allergy prevention, diagnosis and treatment. A world leader in allergy, ALK specialises in allergy immunotherapy; which not only reduces allergic symptoms but also treats the underlying cause of specific allergies. ALK has approximately 2,000 employees with subsidiaries, production facilities and distributors worldwide.
This is the first time the teams from these areas have met since 2019 due to Covid travel restrictions. The meeting was also attended by ALK Executive Vice Presidents Søren Niegel and Søren Jelert and Sean Connor, Regional General Manager Northern Europe.
Danish Ambassador to Ireland, Lars Theusen, who recently moved from the UK, opened the meeting and welcomed the delegates to Dublin. ALK has had representation in Ireland since 2015, however, in recent years the sales team has expanded. This growth has come as the company successfully secured marketing authorisation for 3 new allergy immunotherapy treatments in Ireland, including one for the treatment of adult allergic asthma. Asthma prevalence in Ireland is among the highest in the world. It is the most common chronic disease affecting children and the most common chronic respiratory disease in adults. There is one death per week from asthma in Ireland.
ALK has also committed to increasing allergy education through the support of an educational grant to University College Cork. The emphasis will be on education through the support of postgraduate allergy training courses. ALK was also one of a small number of companies to sponsor the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Summer School on Food Allergy. This event was hosted in University College Cork recently with approximately 150 delegates from across Europe in attendance.
Sean Connor, UK General Manager of ALK says, “ALK is committed to improving the health of people suffering with allergy across the globe and ensuring that health inequalities are minimised. In Ireland, we see large numbers of people who do not have access to life-changing allergy medications when compared to the rest of Europe. ALK intends to change this injustice and have over the last couple of years registered three new products for which we are actively seeking reimbursement so that all patients can access these medicines.”
For more information about ALK visit https://www.alk.net.
