20th Edition - December 2012

IMI 8th Call launched

IMI officially launched its 8th Call for proposals on 17 December with the following topics:

Topics under the IMI programme 'Combating Antibiotic Resistance: New Drugs for Bad Bugs (ND4BB)'

• Topic 1C: Innovative Trial Design & Clinical Development (work package 6 of Topic 1)
• Topic 3: Discovery and development of new drugs combating Gram – negative infections

Topics under the Theme 'Developing an aetiology-based taxonomy for human diseases'

• Topic A: Approaches to develop a new classification for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and related connective tissue disorders and Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Topic B: Approaches to develop a new classification for neurodegenerative disorders with a focus on Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease

European induced pluripotent stem cell bank

The deadline for submitting Expressions of Interest is 19 March 2013. The full Call text as well as details of how to apply can be found on the 8th Call web page. Any questions about the Call topics or IMI’s rules and procedures should be sent to Infodesk[AT]imi.europa.eu

Due to popular demand, IMI will hold a second webinar on the antimicrobial resistance topic on Gram – negative bacteria on 9 January at 15:00 CET (Central European Time / Brussels time).

• View presentations of the other topic webinars here

New IMI projects get underway

The projects funded under IMI’s 4th Call for proposals are now underway, bringing the total number of ongoing IMI projects to 37. With a combined budget of over €237 million, the new projects tackle issues such as stem cells (STEMBANCC), data integration and management (EMIF and eTRIKS), ‘green’ drug development (CHEM21), and drug delivery and drug behaviour in the body (COMPACT, ORBITO and K4DD).

• Read IMI’s press release about the launch
• View all IMI project factsheets

Commission president cites IMI in speech to European Parliament

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso highlighted IMI in a recent speech to the European Parliament on the EU’s multiannual financial framework for 2014-2020. Describing the European budget as ‘our main instrument for investing in growth and job creation’, Mr Barroso devoted a considerable part of his speech to research and innovation, and among other things emphasised that Horizon 2020 needs sufficient funds if it is to develop jobs and growth in small and medium-sized enterprises, support top researchers and their teams, and ensure the continuation of IMI in the health sector.

Save the date! Joint IMI – C-Path event in Brussels on 7 March

On 7 March 2013, IMI and the Critical Path Institute (C-Path) will hold a joint event in Brussels entitled ‘Collaborating for Cures - Leveraging Global Public-Private Partnerships to Accelerate Medical Product Development’. Collaborations between industry, regulatory agencies, academia and patient groups are generating consensus on the value that public-private partnerships (PPPs) provide in delivering innovative tools and methodologies for drug development. At this event, participants will discuss challenges and opportunities in the rapidly-evolving PPP space. The objective is to identify mechanisms for enhancing the productivity of PPPs, coordinating individual PPP efforts to avoid duplication, and adopting best practices on data sharing, intellectual property, and other cross-cutting issues in order to streamline medical product development world-wide.

InnovaHealth report highlights need for new healthcare PPP

To create an open innovation health and wellness ecosystem, the EU should ‘establish a new public-private partnership under Horizon 2020 focused on common industry and public health needs, building on the achievements of and lessons learned from IMI’. This is the headline recommendation from the report ‘Building an Open Innovation ecosystem in Europe for healthcare’, which is the key outcome of the recent InnovaHealth conference in Cyprus. The report was launched at the European Parliament at the end of November by the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine. Other recommendations include:

• the creation of a task force within the European Commission to address barriers to the creation of an open innovation healthcare ecosystem;
• the creation of a European Health Institute to coordinate stakeholder activities designed to ensure citizens are at the heart of healthcare in the EU;
• the use of industrial policies to develop the concept of lead markets for life science innovation.

IMI projects having impact on R&D productivity, new paper shows

The impact of IMI projects on the research and development (R&D) productivity of pharmaceutical companies is highlighted in a new paper in the journal Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research. The paper, by IMI staff members Hugh Laverty, Magda Gunn and Michel Goldman, demonstrates IMI projects’ impact in areas such as the effective prediction of adverse drug reactions, the pooling of data for new analyses, and the joint development of key standards for drug development. ‘As its first wave of projects matures, it is clear that IMI project results are moving beyond the scientifically interesting into key observations that will change the way in which new drugs are discovered and developed,’ the paper concludes. ‘It is expected that as the projects reach completion we will see further results that will facilitate the development and delivery of safer, more effective therapies for patients.’

IMI in the news

IMI and its projects have been hitting the headlines over the past few weeks. The launch of the 4th Call project STEMBANCC attracted a lot of media attention, with articles in the Financial Times, Nature, and the British Medical Journal. Elsewhere, IMI Executive Director Michel Goldman was interviewed by Nordic Life Science Review for an article on IMI’s antimicrobial resistance work. Meanwhile an article in MedNous focuses on IMI’s work in the neuroscience area and includes quotes from both Michel Goldman and NEWMEDS project coordinator Tine Bryan Stensbøl of Lundbeck.

IMI presentations at forthcoming conferences

Below is an overview of some forthcoming events where staff from the IMI Executive Office and other IMI stakeholders will present IMI’s work and achievements.

• Industrial-led partnerships within the EU R&I-Framework Programme – Outlook for HORIZON 2020
  Vienna, Austria, 23 January 2013
  IMI Executive Director Michel Goldman will take part in a panel discussion at this event, which will be broadcast over the internet.
  Event website

• The Pharma Summit 2013 – Back to basics: the real business of pharma
  London, UK, 28 February 2013
  IMI Executive Director Michel Goldman will give a talk on ‘the R&D department of the future’.
  Event website

• DIA Euromeeting
  Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 4-6 March 2013
  IMI’s Education & Training projects will have an entire theme dedicated to their work at the event. They will also have a stand at the exhibition.
  Event website

• Collaborating for Cures - Leveraging Global Public-Private Partnerships to Accelerate Medical Product Development
  Brussels, Belgium, 7 March 2013
  This event jointly organised by IMI and C-Path will discuss challenges and opportunities in the rapidly-evolving PPP space
  Event web page: coming soon

Season’s Greetings

IMI would like to wish all its partners and stakeholders a very merry Christmas and all the best for a happy and successful 2013.

The IMI office will be closed from 22 December 2012 to 2 January 2013 inclusive. During that period, any urgent queries should be sent to michel.goldman[AT]imi.europa.eu or ewa.zettergren[AT]imi.europa.eu.