The means at our disposal :

• Calls for tender : 350 research programmes and 60 doctoral or post-doctoral grants financed each year; 80 “rare diseases” scientific projects supported through calls for tender from the National Research Agency and the Institute of Rare Diseases (in 2005 and 2006).

• A real exploitation policy for sites and platforms : Paris Hospital Authority (Necker, Cochin, Pitié-Salpêtrière etc), centre at Nantes, Maisons-Alfort Veterinary School, Marseille-Nice, Genopole at Evry.

• Strategic programmes : 17 projects ranging from €500K to several million euros per year for several years.

• Institutional partnerships : INSERM, CNRS, CEA, AP-HP, Universities, Ministry of Research and Ministry of Health etc.

• Industrial partnerships : (pharmaceutical and biotechnical companies) faithful to our logic of the patient’s benefit.

• Associative partnerships : financial support to other associations such as the French Cystic Fibrosis Observatory or Rétina France; creation and financing of Eurodis, a European association bringing together 300 European rare diseases associations; a strategic consortium with other major international associations like the MDA (Muscular Dystrophy Association) or the Duchenne Parent Project and the Imagine Foundation (Necker Hospital) of which the AFM is a founding partner.

• Initiatives to the European Community through Eurodis that led to – for example – a specific regulation for orphan drugs (449 drugs designated orphan drugs since 1999, of which 33 resulted in market authorisations for the potential benefit of 1.6 million patients in Europe).