41st Edition – December 2014

IMI launches 3rd and 4th Calls for proposals under IMI 2

IMI has launched the 3rd and 4th Calls for proposals under the IMI 2 programme.

The following research and innovation topics are included in IMI 2 - Call 3:

• Remote assessment of disease and relapse (RADAR), topic 1: central nervous system (CNS)
• Assessing risk and progression of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes to enable disease modification
• Linking clinical neuropsychiatry and quantitative neurobiology
• The consistency approach to quality control in vaccine manufacture
• Pertussis vaccination research
• Knowledge Repository to enable patient focused medicine development

Deadline for submitting proposals: 24 March 2015

The following coordination and support action is included in IMI 2 - Call 4:

• Enabling platform on medicines adaptive pathway to patients

Deadline for submitting proposals: 11 February 2015

The IMI Partner Search Tool includes keywords for the 3rd and 4th Call topics, to allow applicants to find partners.

• Find out more about IMI 2 – Call 3
• Find out more about IMI 2 – Call 4
• Read the press release on the call launch

IMI collaborates with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on whooping cough vaccine

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has joined IMI as an Associated Partner for the 3rd Call topic on whooping cough (pertussis) vaccines. Pertussis is an infectious disease caused by the Bordetella pertussis bacterium and characterised by severe coughing fits. Worldwide, there are around 16 million cases and 195 000 deaths from pertussis in children every year. Vaccines against pertussis do exist, but a resurgence in the number of cases in certain countries is cause for concern. This new project will make it possible to refine current vaccination schedules to make them more effective, and facilitate the development of new and improved vaccine formulations.

‘It is unacceptable that a vaccine-preventable disease like whooping cough remains a leading cause of death for young people around the world,’ said Trevor Mundel, president of Global Health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 'We are excited to partner with the Innovative Medicines Initiative in such a critical area of global health research to identify and develop more effective vaccines because when kids are healthier, communities and economies thrive.’

Read the press release on the call launch

Webinars on IMI 2 - Calls 3 and 4

In December 2014 and January 2015 IMI is holding webinars on each topic of the upcoming IMI 2 3rd and 4th Calls for proposals, as well as its new rules and procedures.

All webinars on the Call topics will feature a presentation by the EFPIA topic coordinator, as well as time for questions and answers. The webinars will therefore represent an excellent opportunity to learn more about the topics, interact directly with the topic coordinators, and get in touch with potential project partners.

The webinar on IMI’s new rules and procedures will also include presentations of IMI's intellectual property policy and tips on the preparation of proposal submissions.

Registration for the webinars is free but obligatory.  As places are limited, early registration is recommended. Please register via the IMI website.

Michel Goldman’s bids IMI farewell

Michel Goldman’s last day as Executive Director of IMI was 15 December. In his farewell message he reflected on IMI’s successes and wrote:

‘Before stepping down as Executive Director, I wish to thank all those who made possible the success of the first phase of our public-private partnership. Let's first acknowledge the key contribution of our founding members, the European Commission and EFPIA, which jointly pioneered a new collaborative model to boost innovation in medicines research and development. Of course, warmest thanks are due to the scientists from public institutions, non-profit and private companies as well as patient groups and regulatory authorities who took advantage of this model to develop unprecedented collaborative efforts and deliver impressive results. Above all, I want to express my deepest gratitude to my collaborators at the IMI Programme Office. Together, we have worked hard to exert our role of honest broker that is critical to the success of multi-stakeholder consortia. I am convinced that they will continue to accomplish their mission with the same remarkable commitment under the leadership of Irene Norstedt, their new acting Executive Director.’

Professor Goldman will now work as a Professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where he will develop new research and teaching activities.

Irene Norstedt named Acting Executive Director of IMI

The IMI Governing Board has appointed Irene Norstedt as Acting Executive Director of IMI as of 16 December 2014.

Irene Norstedt comes from the European Commission, where she was Head of the Innovative and Personalised Medicine Unit at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. She has been at the European Commission since 1996, and was instrumental in the creation of IMI back in 2008. Prior to joining the European Commission, she worked at Swedish life science company Biacore AB and at the Swedish embassy in London.

Meanwhile, the recruitment of a new IMI Executive Director is ongoing; the deadline for applications was in July 2014.

C-Path and IMI 2nd Annual Meeting a success

The second IMI-C-Path public conference, ‘Partnerships to Expand the Precompetitive Space’ on 3 December in Bethesda, USA brought together more than 70 government officials, researchers, regulators, and pharmaceutical industry representatives. The meeting was co-chaired by Michel Goldman (Executive Director, IMI) and Martha Brumfield (President & Chief Executive Officer, Critical Path Institute and provided opportunities to discuss how collaborative partnerships could revolutionize the development of drugs, diagnostics and devices. The conference looked at the many models for collaboration and the discussion highlighted the need for continuing to share the ‘lessons learned’ between the various public-private partnerships as well as fully involving the broader life sciences and related research communities. Discussions with panel members from the FDA, fNIH, EMA and others covered three main topics - advanced regulatory science, data-sharing and patient safety biomarkers.

• See the press release
• Presentations from the event are available on the event web page

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery highlights impact of IMI on regulatory science

A comment piece in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery highlights IMI’s role in advancing regulatory science.

The paper was written by former IMI Executive Director Michel Goldman, IMI Senior Scientific Project Manager Nathalie Seigneuret, and the Senior Medical Officer of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), Hans-Georg Eichler.

In it, they highlight several examples of how IMI projects are delivering the science-based evidence regulatory agencies need to take informed decisions. IMI projects are making progress in a wide range of areas with regulatory relevance, including medicines safety, disease classification, assessing the risks and benefits of medicines, and assessing the effectiveness of new medicines under ‘real life’ conditions. The paper highlights the benefits of early interactions with regulators, noting that discussions with IMI projects prompted the EMA to launch consultations in the areas of autism and Alzheimer’s disease treatments. ‘As the IMI continues to serve as a European engine for regulatory science, it will become increasingly important to intensify scientific exchanges with public-private partnerships of a similar nature,’ the paper concludes. ‘Similarly, it will be important to include discussion on how to translate scientific results into the regulatory framework at global conferences in order to align regulatory requirements as much as possible.’

IMI Programme Office closed during holiday period

The IMI Programme Office will be closed from 24 December 2014 to 2 January 2015 inclusive. During that time, urgent enquiries should be sent to:

• antoine.cuvillier[AT]imi.europa.eu (24-28 December)
• ewa.zettergren[AT]imi.europa.eu (29 December – 2 January)

Non-urgent enquiries can be sent to Infodesk[AT]imi.europa.eu – these will be dealt with when the office reopens on 5 January 2015.