The IMI Governing Board, the decision-making body of the IMI Joint Undertaking (IMI JU), met today to kick-off the work of the Innovative Medicines Initiative in its attempt to overcome bottlenecks in European pharmaceutical R&D and support biomedical research for the benefit of patients. The IMI, a unique partnership between the European Community and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) has been established as a Joint Technology Initiative, a major new element of the EU's 7th Research Framework Programme (2007-2013). Through the IMI Joint Undertaking, the IMI will manage €2 billion in research funds, with €1 billion coming from the FP7 funds and €1 billion in-kind from the member companies of EFPIA.
The aim of the Innovative Medicines Initiative and its research agenda is to address the key ‘bottlenecks’ in the biomedical R&D process in Europe. It focuses on addressing clinical safety concerns and seeking to improve the efficacy of new pharmaceutical interventions, in areas such as cancer, brain disorders, inflammatory, metabolic and infectious diseases. Projects to be funded under the IMI will also seek to address current deficits in knowledge management and education and training for pharmaceutical R&D within Europe. Progress in these four areas will lead to faster discovery and development of better therapies, providing new tools which can be applied to different therapeutic areas, including rare and neglected diseases. This will enable patients to have faster access to innovative therapies, leading to a healthier society.
The Governing Board of the IMI JU is composed of 10 members, representing equally its two Founding Members: the European Community, represented by the Commission and the EFPIA. The Governing Board shall have the overall responsibility for the operations of the Joint Undertaking.
Decisions in the first meeting concentrated on two key priorities for IMI in 2008: launching the first call for project proposals and progressing towards making the IMI JU autonomous. The Governing Board therefore approved the draft scientific priorities for the first IMI call, full details of which will shortly be published on the IMI website.
The elected Chair of the Governing Board, Jonathan Knowles (also Chair of EFPIA’s Research Director’s Group), expressed his satisfaction on the outcomes of the first meeting of the Founding Member representatives: “Future public-private partnerships will look at the IMI as a model. Today we started a new way of funding research which fosters collaboration between all stakeholders.
The results of this collaboration will considerably improve our understanding of the molecular basis of diseases which will enhance our ability to create effective new therapies for patients”
The Interim Executive Director, Alain Vanvossel, added that “The IMI is truly a unique collaborative approach to addressing the challenges facing the development of medicines and Europe will be a main beneficiary of this new way of collaboration. Once successful we expect more pharmaceutical investment in Europe, a boost to Europe’s competitiveness and improved benefits for patients in Europe.
The formal publication of the first IMI call with the opening of applications is expected for April. An information event is planned for April 30th, allowing interested stakeholders to gather information to submit high quality proposals to the IMI JU.
The Members of the IMI Governing Board are:
Brian Ager, Director General – EFPIA,
Franco Biscontin, Director – Resources, DG RTD,
Andreas Busch, Executive Vice President - Head of Global Drug Discovery - Bayer Health-Care,
Jackie Hunter, Senior V-P & Head, Neurology Centre of Excellence for Drug Discovery – GSK,
Carlo Incerti, Head of R&D Europe – GENZYME,
Daniel Jacob, Deputy Director-General - Political Framework, DG RTD,
Jonathan Knowles, Head of Group Research – ROCHE,
Georgette Lalis, Director – Consumer Goods, DG ENTR,
Andrzej Jan Rys, Director – Public Health and Risk assessment, DG SANCO,
Zoran Stančič, Deputy Director-General – Scientific advances, DG RTD.
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