EU Commission and pharma industry launch second call for research proposal towards more efficient drug development methods

Europe's Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) officially launched its second Call for proposals. The public-private partnership between the European Commission and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) is inviting research consortia to submit proposals for nine scientific topics.

The aim of the Call is to speed up the discovery and development of new medicines for diseases such as cancer and inflammatory and infectious diseases. The IMI will also fund projects to improve data exchange between industry and the scientific community, an important aspect of knowledge management. The Commission's contribution to this second Call of 76.8 million euros ($114 million) is expected to be at least matched by in-kind contributions from the member companies of the EFPIA.

Michel Goldman, executive director of the IMI said: "This 2nd Call for proposals will help build the IMI's potential for providing support for the kind of innovation we need and open up the current bottlenecks in drug development."

EU Commissioner for Science and Research, Janez Potocnik, added: "Back in 2004, we came up with a way to make Europe the place for biomedical research while unblocking the bottlenecks in drug research: this is what the IMI is all about. It sits at the center of the knowledge triangle, building better cooperation between the public and private sectors and helping us deal with the biggest challenges we face, in an economically competitive and sustainable way. It also shows that this new partnership between the Commission and the industry delivers".

Arthur Higgins, chief executive of Germany's Bayer HealthCare and president of the EFPIA stated: 'The IMI is a clear statement that Europe intends to be at the forefront of biopharmaceutical innovation. This initiative has successfully brought together normally competing pharmaceutical companies with academic stakeholders in an unparalleled effort to accelerate discovery.'

On November 16, 2009, the IMI officially became autonomous. It gained financial and operational independence from its two founding members, the European Commission and the EFPIA. A new team, led by the new executive director Michel Goldman, will run the Brussels-based IMI's Executive Office and will be responsible for the awards of grants under IMI's second Call for Proposals.

Out of the nine Call topics, three are related to improving knowledge management which is key to future progress in the development of efficient medicines. They notably aim to improve data standards for the industry, academia and regulatory authorities to better evaluate efficacy and safety of new medicines. They also seek to allow easier sharing of information that will accelerate drug development.

The six other topics aim at working on the efficacy of drugs against cancer, inflammatory and infectious diseases. For example, one topic focuses on understanding the composition of cancer tumors and their response to treatment. Another intends to speed up the development of better, cheaper and quicker diagnostics for infectious diseases. The application deadline for the new Call for proposals is February 8, 2010 and the results will be announced in the summer of 2010.