The projects, in areas including diabetes, pain, severe asthma and psychiatric disorders, will help improve the training of researchers and clinicians involved in drug development They were chosen following the first call for proposals within the IMI, a public-private partnership between the European Commission and the pharmaceutical industry.
The Commission stresses that this is the first time the industry has pooled resources with research organisations, patient groups and other stakeholders in large consortia, to develop generic, pre-competitive knowledge. The Commission’s contribution of €110 million will be matched with €136 million of in-kind resources from the pharmaceutical industry.
The projects selected will address the main causes of delay in the pharmaceutical research and development process. The overall objective is to encourage more rapid discovery and development while improving the competitiveness of the European pharmaceutical industry. The projects will help to increase the predicted safety and efficacy of medicines, enhance data exchange between researchers and improve education and training in the sector.
Around 150 applications for funding were received. The best consortia, consisting of research organisations, SMEs, academia, patient organisations, and regulatory bodies, were selected in the first peer review to form joint project teams with the corresponding EFPIA consortia. On the basis of scientific review and their potential impact on the identified bottlenecks, 15 projects from these teams have now been selected.
Pharmaceutical companies within EFPIA will fully fund their own participation by providing R&D resources including staff, laboratory facilities, materials and clinical research. The European Community funds will be allocated only to other public sector, SME, patient groups and academic participants.
Contract negotiations for the 15 projects should be finished by November 2009. A second Call for Proposals is to be launched in autumn 2009 when for projects in oncology, diagnosis of infectious diseases, chronic inflammatory diseases and knowledge management.
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