IMI News
- Big data, drug safety assessment, and neuropathic pain in the spotlight of Call 7
- IMI expands Ebola+ programme with open Call for proposals
- Interested in IMI Calls 7 & 8? Sign up for the webinars now!
- IMI highlights successes & impact at the European Parliament
- IMI Programme Office closed over Christmas
News from our projects
Big data, drug safety assessment, and neuropathic pain in the spotlight of Call 7
Big data (in the area of heart disease), drug safety assessment, neuropathic pain, macular degeneration and childhood cancers are the focus of IMI 2 – Call 7, which has a total budget of €46.8 million for applicants. The Call also features a topic on the coordination of the Big Data for Better Outcomes programme which was the subject of a consultation earlier this year. The Call is the seventh to be launched under the IMI 2 programme. Pierre Meulien, IMI’s Executive Director commented: ‘These Calls for proposals demonstrate the added value of IMI. Excellent science exists in all of these research areas, but only by bringing together experts from industry, academia, small biotechs, patient groups, and others can we hope to translate world-class science into improved health for patients.’
- Deadline for short proposals: 17 March 2016
- All Call documents and details of how to apply can be found on the Stage 1 page
- Read IMI’s press release
- Read our tips for applicants and find partners
IMI expands Ebola+ programme with open Call for proposals
IMI has launched an open Call for proposals on Ebola and related diseases. This Call is the second Call under the Ebola+ programme and falls under the same broad scope. It has a total budget of €70 million and provides an opportunity to capture emerging scientific advances and to progress those rapidly into health care interventions. Projects funded under this Call should ensure fast development and a wide deployment of sustainable innovative solutions that will result in an increased readiness to respond to future outbreaks. Applicants should pay particular attention to exploiting support from different stakeholders, including the mobilisation of funds through the inclusion of contributing partners under the IMI scheme of public-private consortia. Proposals may address aspects of pre-clinical development and/or clinical development of vaccines, treatments and diagnosis of Ebola or other filovirus infections. Manufacturing strategies, vaccine stability during transport and storage, and/or deployment of vaccines and treatments are also in scope. There are a number of cut-off dates for this open Call, the first of which is 16 March 2016. The entire budget will be available as of the first cut-off date. The final cut-off date is in March 2018.
- All Call documents and details of how to apply can be found on the Call 8 page
- Read IMI’s press release
- Read our tips for applicants and find partners
Interested in IMI Calls 7 & 8? Sign up for the webinars now!
From 11 to 29 January 2016, IMI will hold webinars on each topic of the upcoming IMI2 7th and 8th Calls for proposals, as well as one webinar on the IMI2 rules and procedures.
All webinars on the Call topics will feature a presentation by the EFPIA topic coordinator and time for questions and answers. The webinar on IMI’s rules and procedures will also include presentations of IMI's intellectual property policy and tips on the preparation of proposal submissions.
These webinars represent an excellent opportunity to learn more about the Call topics, interact directly with the topic coordinators, and get in touch with potential project partners to form a consortium. Webinar participants can benefit additionally if they submit the questions and comments in advance, which moderators can answer during the webinar. The schedule is as follows (all times are Central European Time / Brussels time):
• Coordination and support action (CSA) for the Big Data for Better Outcomes Programme: Monday 11 January 2016, 15:00 – 16:30
• Increase access and use of high quality data to improve clinical outcomes in heart disease: Tuesday 12 January 2016, 15:00 – 16:30
• Validation of translational imaging methods in drug safety assessment: Wednesday 13 January 2016, 15:00 – 16:30
• Identification of druggable targets modulating misfolded proteins in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases: Thursday 14 January 2016, 15:00 – 16:30
• Ebola and other filoviral haemorrhagic fevers (Ebola+) programme: future outbreaks: Friday 15 January 2016, 14:30 – 16:00
• Dry age-related macular degeneration: development of novel clinical endpoints for clinical trials: Tuesday 19 January 2016, 15:00 – 16:30
• IMI rules and procedures: Wednesday, 20 January 2016, 15:00 - 16:30
• Pathological neuron-glia interactions in neuropathic pain: Tuesday, 26 January 2016, 15:00 – 16:30
• A ‘paediatric preclinical POC platform’ to enable clinical molecule development for children with cancer: Friday, 29 January 2016, 14:30 – 16:00
Registration is free but obligatory. Links to the registration forms for each webinar can be found on the webinar page.
IMI highlights successes & impact at the European Parliament
IMI, together with other joint undertakings (JUs), presented its socio-economic impacts in the European Parliament in Brussels as part of the European Innovation Summit. A number of JUs were set up in 2007-2008 to drive innovation in key industrial sectors, namely aviation (Clean Sky and SESAR), electronic components & systems (ENIAC and ARTEMIS, which subsequently merged to create ECSEL), health (IMI), and fuel cells and hydrogen for transport & energy solutions (FCH). Since their launch, these pioneering partnerships have more than demonstrated their ability to deliver results that are both scientifically excellent and have practical applications in areas that are vital to Europe’s competitiveness. Now, the PPPs are starting to demonstrate clear socio-economic benefits. Also involved in the summit was BBI JU, which was set up in 2014 and is working in the bio-based industries and materials sector.
- Read the press release
- Download other presentations and speaking notes from the event web page
- Read IMI's social media experiences of the event in this Storify
IMI Programme Office closed over Christmas
The IMI Programme Office will be closed from 24 December 2015 to 1 January 2016 inclusive. During that time, urgent enquiries should be sent to:
catherine.brett[AT]imi.europa.eu (24-28 December)
ewa.zettergren[AT]imi.europa.eu (29 December – 1 January)
Non-urgent enquiries can be sent to Infodesk[AT]imi.europa.eu – these will be dealt with when the office reopens on 4 January 2016.
French SME joins antimicrobial resistance project ENABLE
French SME Nosopharm has joined IMI’s antimicrobial resistance project ENABLE. Thanks to this move, Nosopharm will be able to advance the development of a novel antibiotic it has created called NOSO-95179, which is designed to treat multidrug-resistant hospital-acquired infections. Specifically, Nosopharm will be able to access significant technical expertise and financial support to complete further studies. Nosopharm will also participate in collaborative research with ENABLE’s expert partners across Europe. Finally, the project will strengthen the company’s intellectual property as all NOSO-95179 results will be owned by Nosopharm. ‘Being selected for ENABLE strengthens Nosopharm’s position among the most innovative companies in the antibacterial R&D community,’ said Philippe Villain-Guillot, president of Nosopharm. ‘This is a major milestone in the development of our NOSO-95179 candidate. We would like to warmly thank the IMI and the ENABLE team for their trust and support.’ Meanwhile IMI Executive Director Pierre Meulien said: ‘IMI is delighted that projects such as ENABLE can support SMEs to advance programs through the most challenging phases of development. This is an example of how public-private partnerships such as IMI can address critical scientific and commercial challenges for the benefit of patients.’
Patent filed for European Lead Factory compounds
Scientists from the University of Oxford have filed a patent to protect compounds identified with the help of the IMI project the European Lead Factory. The patent addresses multidrug resistance in bacterial infections. This important milestone, reached less than three years into the project, reflects the European Lead Factory’s ability to deliver on its promise, and highlights the potential of this shared innovation approach to drug discovery.
The drug target programme was submitted to the European Lead Factory for high-throughput screening by Professor Christopher Schofield and co-workers from the University of Oxford. ‘We had identified what we believed was a good target, but we did not have the resources to run high-throughput screening,’ explains Professor Schofield. ‘That’s when we became aware of the EU Lead Factory. Jurgen Brem from our laboratory worked productively with the EU Lead Factory team to optimise a suitable assay.
The European Lead Factory, supported by IMI, combines a high-throughput screening centre and a high-quality compound library. The screen against Professor Schofield’s drug target identified an array of promising compounds that were subsequently optimised. The patent that was filed protects these compounds in combination with the biological effect.
‘Overall, we are extremely satisfied with the progress, from assay optimisation to post-hit validation, and the synthesis of follow up compounds/medicinal chemistry expertise,’ said Professor Schofield. ‘The EU Lead Factory really offers a collaborative effort rather than a service, with an exemplary level of commitment and professionalism from the EU Lead Factory scientists on the different sites.’
DRIVE-AB project participant wins leadership award
The Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA) has named Professor Kevin Outterson of Boston University School of Law and Boston University School of Public Health as the recipient of its 2015 leadership award. Professor Outterson is a partner in the DRIVE-AB, which is working on developing new economic models that simultaneously incentivise antibiotic development while promoting the responsible use of antibiotics. ‘We recognise Professor Outterson as a thought leader in the worldwide effort to contain antibiotic resistance,’ said APUA President Stuart B. Levy. ‘His intellectual commitment to the economic realities of developing new drugs that affect the global aspects and consequences of antibacterial resistance alter our thinking about answers to these complex problems.’ In DRIVE-AB, Professor Outterson contributes to the project’s activities on the creation and testing of new economic models.
- Read DRIVE-AB’s article on the announcement
- Read Boston University’s press release
PRECISESADS hits 1000 mark on patient recruitment
IMI project PRECISESADS has now recruited over 1 000 people into its pan-European clinical study on systemic autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. The milestone means that the project is well on track to recruit a total of 2 500 people from 9 countries into the study. In the project, patients with the diseases under study as well as healthy people are giving blood and urine samples which are analysed in detail. ‘This will allow us to gain a full molecular profile of the patients and (hopefully) allow us to cluster the patients into groups based on their molecular profile instead of their clinical symptoms,’ explains project coordinator Marta Alarcón Riquelme of GENYO in Spain. ‘This would then allow clinicians to tailor the therapies to the specific pathways to be targeted in a sort of personalised medicine.’ The project hopes to recruit all patients needed for the study by the middle of 2017.
IMI-TRAIN sets out competencies in safety sciences for medicines and devices
IMI education and training project IMI-TRAIN is working to address the competencies (i.e. the skills, knowledge and behaviours) needed by people working in safety sciences for medicines and devices. Now, the project has set up a specially-created task force to set out the competencies needed in a range of academic, industry and regulatory settings regarding safety sciences. Examples of competencies identified so far include:
- access, integrate and critically analyse data from multiple sources to help answer drug safety questions;
- define and implement safety analysis strategies;
- demonstrate high-level knowledge of global regulations with respect to drug safety and adverse event reporting, and the development, implementation and monitoring of risk management activities.
- evaluate safety data to assess benefit versus risk to individual patients, research subjects, and/or to a given population and its environment.
The task force is now gathering input from experts in academia, industry and regulatory authorities with regards to the competencies for those working in the area of safety sciences. The project hopes that the outcomes will help professionals, employers and those providing education in this area to assess the courses to ensure that the needs of all the stakeholders are met. The various courses and programmes currently on offer are aligned with what the sector requires. More broadly, the competencies, along with an accreditation system, will help to recognise and consolidate the expertise gained from attending the safety science’s courses. This will, going forward, contribute towards a certified profession of safety scientists.