Rudolf Widman achieved a long-cherished goal in establishing AOP Orphan. His interest in rare diseases dates back to his pharmacy studies at the University of Innsbruck, which he completed in 1981. He deepened his knowledge in the course of writing his dissertation and working as an assistant at the Institute for Pharmacology in Innsbruck, focusing particularly on epilepsy and affections of the central nervous system. In the years that followed, he worked at the Max Planck Institute for neurological research on cerebral infarction.   In 1991, he entered the private sector and began his career in quality management in IMMUNO. Two years later, he joined Wellcome Austria Pharma, where he worked as Head of Medical Services until the company was taken over by Glaxo. In the new company Glaxo-Wellcome, he was active in the Business Unit Hospital as Senior Medical Marketing Adviser. It was during his time in the international pharmaceutical industry that he realized that the large companies were not concentrating on rare diseases and that patients were often being left stranded. This ultimately led to him founding AOP Orphan in 1996, where he is both owner and CEO.

Quality Management