Innovative Medicines Initiative

This article is part of the Pharma_Portal project of Spinwatch.

History

The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) is a partnership between the European Community and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). According to its website: 'The objective of IMI is to support the faster discovery and development of better medicines for patients and to enhance Europe’s competitiveness by ensuring that its biopharmaceutical sector remains a dynamic high-technology sector.'

Achieving the Objectives

• The European Commission and EFPIA propose to create and operate a new Public Private Partnership, the IMI Joint Undertaking, which will fund Patient Centred Projects.
• These Patient Centred Projects will consider delays in the process of getting new drugs on the market and address these issues in order to speed up the process.
• Patient Centred Projects will be conducted with European patient organisations, universities, hospitals, regulatory authorities, and small and large companies.
• Representatives from the pharmaceutical industry, patient groups, universities, regulatory authorities and hospitals will collaborate to form the IMI Strategic Research Agenda which will: predict the safety and efficacy of drugs; and bridge gaps in knowledge management, education and training.

People

From the industry side:

• Brian Ager (EFPIA Director General)
• Andreas Busch (Head of Global Drug Discovery, Bayer HealthCare)
• Jackie Hunter (Senior Vice President, GlaxoSmithKline R&D)
• Carlo Incerti (Head of R&D Europe & Co-Chair of European Management Board, Genzyme)
• Jonathan Knowles (President of Group Research, F. Hoffmann-La Roche)

From the European Commission:

• Daniel Jacob (DG Research, Deputy Director-General)
• Ruxandra Draghia-Akli (DG Research, Director)
• Franco Biscontin (DG Research, Director)
• Georgette Lalis (DG Enterprise, Director)
• Andrzej Jan Rys (DG Sanco, Director)

Funding

• Pharmaceutical companies fund their own participation - 100%.
• Pharmaceutical companies provide R&D resources such as staff, laboratory facilities, materials and clinical research.
• Through the EFPIA, companies will fund half of the cost of the IMI Executive Office - about 4% of the total budget.
• Public money will go exclusively to other participants (public sector, SMEs, patient groups, academics.

Contact

Address:

IMI

c/o EFPIA

Leopold Plaza Building

Troonstraat

Rue du Trône 108

B-1050

Brussels

Belgium

Website:

http://www.efpia.org