Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
scope, and location, but they demonstrate how such large collaborations can
be successfully established.
4.2.1
Innovative Medicines Initiative
The IMI was offi cially established by the European Commission and EFPIA,
the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry Associations, in 2007 and
is therefore relatively new. The dialogue for this initiative started in 2004 when
the commission approached the Research Directors Group (RDG) of the
EFPIA and asked them what the bottlenecks were in the drug discovery and
development process and how the commission could stimulate research in
Europe to address these. The RDG worked with the commission and various
stakeholder groups, including academia, biotechnology companies, and
patients, to draw up a strategic research agenda from which the topics for
research funding would be drawn. A pilot project bringing companies and
researchers together in two areas, safety pharmacology and neurodegenera-
tion, was also funded under the Framework VI Programme to identify some
best practices and issues that might arise in collaborations of this nature
( http://www.innomed - addneuromed.com ).
Collaborations of this scale required a new funding mechanism—one that
could be used across a range of industries, not just the pharmaceutical industry.
Such a new funding vehicle was established by the European Commission—
the Joint Technology Initiatives (JTIs). The JTIs were a new way of realizing
PPPs in research at the European level that were released as part of the
Framework VII Programme for Research, Development and Demonstration.
They were intended to support transnational cooperation in fi elds of key
importance for industrial research [11].
The overarching objective of the IMI was to promote Europe as the most
attractive place for pharmaceutical R&D, thereby enhancing access to innova-
tive medicines for patients with a key deliverable of the provision for new
tools and methodologies to remove major bottlenecks in drug development.
It is one of the largest biomedical research initiatives in the world with a con-
tribution of €1 billion from the European Commission which is being matched
by a contribution of €1 billion from the EFPIA and its member companies.
What makes it unique is that the industry contribution is primarily given as
“in-kind contribution.” This can be in the form of reagents, personnel, clinical
data and samples, preclinical data and samples, and so on. The money from
the commission goes to fund the work of participating academic groups, small-
to medium-sized biotech companies (SMEs), and other participants such as
patient groups. The main focus of the research is on developing and validating
new techniques and methods to enhance the prediction of safety and effi cacy
of new medicines. This is underpinned by better knowledge management that
will provide the necessary data pooling and data processing. Education and
training programs will ensure a workforce in Europe that is more skilled for
the future needs of this sector [12]. This is shown schematically in Figure 4.1.
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