The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) has officially launched its “second call” for proposals. The public-private partnership between the European Commission (EC) and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) is inviting research consortia to submit proposals for nine scientific topics.
Similar to the FDA’s Critical Path program, the aim of the IMI is to speed up the discovery and development of new medicines for diseases such as cancer and inflammatory and infectious diseases. IMI will also fund projects to improve data exchange between industry and the scientific community, an important aspect of knowledge management.
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 aims to speed up the development of better, cheaper and quicker diagnostics for infectious diseases.
The European Commission's contribution to this second call will be €76.8 million is expected to be at least matched by in-kind contributions from the member companies of EFPIA.
The FDA’s Critical Path program was given only $6 million by Congress. Is the future of drug development really more than 10X more important in Europe?
