Welcome to New England Rare Disease Statistics Workshop (NERDS) 2021

Virtual Webinar Series
November 2021 - December 2021

The New England Statistical Society (NESS), alongside the 2021 NERDS Organizing Committee, is pleased to announce that we will be hosting a series of virtual webinars (11/2021 - 12/2021) focused on the current state of statistical and clinical research in rare disease drug development. We had a very successful virtual NERDS 2020 event last year, where we had well over 200 registrants. This year we aim to keep the conversation going with several webinars that are aimed to keep our rare disease community connected and informed of recent advances and research. We all look forward to a day when we will be able to safely meet again in person for this event as we had done in 2019.


The event is free and open to everyone. Please register here. Once you register, you will receive notifications and invitations to future webinars, as well as all NERDS announcements.

Promotional flyer in PDF.


History

The last 10-15 years have seen great emergence of drug development efforts in the rare disease space. Contributing factors include increased public awareness, encouraging drug regulation changes, scientific advancement in cellular/molecular biology and genetics, development of innovative trial designs, large influx of capital investment, availability of scientific talent through decades of cultivation, etc.

As a result, a great number of regulators, academicians, and industry statisticians now work to bring these orphan drugs to patients, facing unique technical issues and challenges. However, at least in the US, there is no statistical conference dedicated to such unique issues and challenges. Given the large unmet need, the New England Statistical Society (NESS) has proposed this unique conference so that statisticians across the entire rare disease drug development spectrum have a common “home” to exchange ideas and share experiences, and also to network.

The NERDS Workshop aims to be a one-day workshop with detailed presentations and discussions. Speakers from industry, academia, and government are invited. Topics will cover technical issues, regulation interpretation, industry trends, and case studies of both success and failure stories.