Curating Patient Data to Accelerate Rare Disease Drug Development

When Onno Faber began experiencing hearing loss in his left ear four years ago, doctors suspected an infection and prescribed steroids. His hearing loss didn’t slow and after several failed treatments, an MRI revealed a large tumor on a critical nerve. Months later, a second tumor was discovered affecting the nerve for his other ear and he was diagnosed with the rare genetic disease neurofibromatosis type 2. A technology entrepreneur, Faber sought to apply what he learned in his career to fight his disease. He founded RDMD with a mission to accelerate rare disease drug development by creating a platform to make needed patient data available to drug developers. We spoke to Faber about his own rare disease journey, the creation of RDMD, and how his company has evolved.