Diego ARDIGÓ

Diego is currently the Global Head of Research & Development in Rare Diseases at Chiesi Group. Before this role, he was leading Chiesi’s development projects in rare diseases and advanced therapies and has more than 20 years experience in medical research and more than 10 in drug development, spanning from pre-clinical to commercial phase.

Diego is an MD with a specialization in Internal Medicine. He obtained a PhD at the University of Parma (Italy) in cardiovascular pathophysiology and a post-doctoral fellowship in cardiovascular genomics at Stanford University (California, US).

Before joining the industry, he worked at the University of Parma (Italy) in the field of cardiovascular and metabolic genomics, and as free-lance consultant for various academic institutions.

He joined Chiesi in 2010, where acted as Clinical Lead in the registration of the first stem cell therapy in EU and led the cross-company team (with uniQure BV) treating the first patient with a commercial gene therapy in EU.

Diego is a board member of the European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (EUCOPE) and until February 2021 was serving as chairman of the Therapies Scientific Committee of IRDiRC (International Rare Diseases Research Consortium), where he led the Orphan Drug Development Guidebook initiative, He is author of 50+ indexed papers and frequent speaker at international medical and industrial congresses.