Every month, we give the Amicus Mundi Award to an outstanding lawyer in our community who exemplifies our shared values of service and dedication to building a more just and equitable society. This month, we’re celebrating a lawyer using her professional expertise to support the fight against rare diseases.
Join us in saying…
Congratulations, Meg Snowden!
An Impactful Retirement: Meg Snowden’s illustrious career spans thirty years, during which she has provided legal and intellectual property advice and services to companies in the biopharmaceutical industry, including work to make quality medicines more accessible and more affordable.
However, retirement hasn’t slowed her down. Instead, it has paved the way for her to become a tireless champion for We The Action partner organizations.
Since 2020, Meg has been actively involved in projects related to election protection, expungement, asylum, and more. Recently, her professional experience has proved indispensable for the rare disease organizations she supports.
Rare as One: WTA recently announced our partnership with Rare As One, a collective of patient-led organizations working to improve the lives of people affected by rare diseases.
Rare disease nonprofits are often small operations led by parents and patients and have few full-time staff members and limited resources. A critical need of these communities is being able to call upon and rely on legal support.
Meg dove into this work, volunteering with CACNA1A and another rare disease organization, Cure HHT.
“It's incredible to be able to make a difference for these organizations and help them in their mission. I just admire these people and what they're doing in their work on rare diseases. Working with them just makes it so rewarding,” Meg says.
"Our partnership with the Rare As One Network would not be possible without legal experts like Meg. We consider ourselves incredibly fortunate to count her among our community members,” says Anna Chu, Executive Director at We The Action.
Protecting Vital Research: Meg went above and beyond on her recent project with the CACNA1A Foundation, a rare disease patient organization led by parents of children living with CACNA1A-related disorders. The neurodevelopmental disorders caused by variants on the CACNA1A gene have no specific therapies, so the organization has developed a network of researchers who are collaborating to accelerate the path to treatments.
Meg crafted a robust, multi-party non-disclosure agreement that will enable them to safeguard the integrity of their research network's collaborations.
“Rare disease organizations, like CACNA1A Foundation, are not getting enough attention,” Meg says, “so they are working on ways to make it easier for researchers to collaborate and speed up the development of life-saving drugs.”
“The CACNA1A Foundation extends our heartfelt appreciation to Meg. Her invaluable legal expertise and commitment to social impact are evident when you work with her," says Sunitha Malepati, Vice President of the CACNA1A Foundation.
To follow in Meg’s footsteps and volunteer with one of our Rare as One partners, take a look at these projects that critically need support.