Personalised medicine through open innovation

The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) has set an unprecedented partnership model for multi-stakeholder collaboration, redefining medicines R&D in the open innovation space.  IMI projects explore new pathways to accelerate patient access to innovative and personalised therapies. With a very strong tie to personalised medicine, the IMI Strategic Research Agenda guides the programme operations for the period 2014-2024 by focusing on delivering ‘the right prevention and treatment for the right patient at the right time’. 

IMI teamed up with the European Alliance for Personalised Medicines (EAPM) to showcase IMI projects that are working to accelerate the delivery of personalised treatments and cures. IMI organised a session at the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine Congress which took place in Belfast from 27 to 30 November 2017 under the theme ‘Personalising Your Health: A Global Imperative!’.

The IMI event took place on 30 November from 8:30 to 10:00 at the Belfast Waterfront. The session, entitled ‘Personalised Medicine through Open Innovation’, brought together representatives of IMI flagship projects driving public-private collaboration for personalised medicine.

The programme included presentations from:

Peter Sterk, Professor at the Department of Respiratory Medicine in the Academic Medical Centre (AMC) of the University of Amsterdam | U-BIOPRED (Unbiased biomarkers for the prediction of respiratory disease outcomes) | U-BIOPRED is a project that worked to ensure better diagnosis and personalised treatment for each person suffering from severe asthma

Barbara Baggiani, Chief Marketing Officer, Silicon Biosystems - A Menarini Group Company  | CANCER-ID (Cancer treatment and monitoring through identification of circulating tumour cells and tumour related nucleic acids in blood). CANCER-ID is a project developing new, less invasive ways of capturing cancer cells and genetic material from tumours from blood samples and analysing them for clues to determine the best personalised treatment for patients.

Declan Murphy, Professor of Psychiatry and Brain Maturation, King’s College London | EU-AIMS (European Autism Interventions - a Multicentre Study for Developing New Medications) | EU-AIMS is a cohort that has paved the way for the development of new, safe and effective treatments for use in both children and adults affected by the autism spectrum disorders.

Presentations from IMI projects were followed by a dynamic discussion with the audience on the trends, challenges and opportunities for personalised medicines through collaborative research.

The session was chaired by Pierre Meulien, Executive Director of IMI.  

About the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine Congress

The Congress theme is “Personalising Your Health: A Global Imperative!” and brought together a series of high-level international speakers gathering in Belfast for this event.

Parallel streams at the congress included:

• Cancer: a paradigm for personalised health
• Big data for better health
• Driving the innovation agenda
• Keeping the person in personalised health
• Personalised health and the policy agenda

The European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) brings together European healthcare experts, patient advocates involved with chronic diseases, industry, researchers, academics and cross-party Members of the European Parliament (among others). Its aim is to improve patient care by accelerating the development, delivery and uptake of personalised medicine and diagnostics, through consensus building.

The Alliance’s stakeholders focus, not just on the delivery of the right treatment for the right patient at the right time, but also on the right preventative measures to ensure reliable and sustainable healthcare.

In response to the need for a wider understanding of the priorities arising from growing discussion on personalised medicine, EAPM was launched in March 2012 to foster a more integrated approach to the topic among lay and professional stakeholders.

For more information about the congress, please visit http://eapmbelfast2017.com/