IMI News
- Sign up for the IMI2 – Call 17 webinars
- Information on long-term future Call topics published
- Happy holidays
News from our projects
Sign up for the IMI2 – Call 17 webinars
Registration is now open for the webinars on IMI2 – Call 17, which will run from Wednesday 23 January to Thursday 31 January 2019. All webinars on the Call topics will feature a presentation by the EFPIA topic coordinator and time for questions and answers. The webinars therefore 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. We will also hold webinars on IMI’s rules and procedures and opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Registration is free but obligatory via the links on the webinar page. The presentations, recordings and participant lists will be published on the IMI website after each webinar. The topics planned for IMI2 - Call 17 are as follows; the draft topic texts can be found on our Future Topics page.
- iPiE25 - Intelligent prediction and identification of environmental risks posed by human medicinal products
- Optimising future obesity treatment
- Open access chemogenomics library and chemical probes for the druggable genome
Information on long-term future Call topics published
The following topics are under consideration for inclusion in future IMI Calls for proposals in the longer term (i.e. from IMI2 - Call 18 onwards). The discussions on these topics are still in their early stages, so they may change considerably. Furthermore, as the discussions advance, some topics may be added to this list while others may be dropped. In any case, we hope that this information will give potential applicants a useful glimpse into what is under development in the longer term.
- Neurodegeneration / neuroscience: digital transformation of clinical trial endpoints in pain; placebo effect in pain; psychiatric ratings using intermediate stratified markers
- Immunology: psoriatic arthritis
- Infection control including vaccines: new topic(s) under the AMR accelerator platform
- Translational safety: dosing in specific populations; digital pathology
- Big data, digital health, clinical trials and regulatory research: ROADMAP 2 - need and opportunity for public-private collaborative research to continue the RoadMap efforts; independent observatories of health outcomes for patients being the guardians of health data; e-product information - leveraging digital technology to drive the correct use and understanding of medicines: a user-centric approach to adherence and risk minimisation
- Oncology: patient-reported outcomes and quality of life endpoints
- Facilitating the translation of advanced therapies to patients in Europe: accelerating research and development of Advanced Therapies; ATMP Patient Registries Outcomes Data and Evidence; CAR-Ts; Innovative Manufacturing of Advanced Therapeutic Medicinal Products, ATMPs
- Other enablers of research topics: handling of biologic drug products
More information on these potential topics can be found in this document, which is also published on the Future Topics page.
Remote monitoring boost for long-term patients
Under conventional medical practice, monitoring long-term patients is done in the clinic or hospital, assessing such things as treatment effects, adverse events and disease course. In some cases, visits may not be frequent enough to identify individuals at risk of significant changes in disease state, including relapse. On the other hand, having to repeat monitoring procedures too often can be burdensome to both patients and healthcare providers.
The goal of IMI’s RADAR-CNS project is to improve the patient-monitoring process through remote assessment. Project team members are creating a process for developing, testing and implementing wearable technologies for the remote measurement of depression, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy. Although remote monitoring is still in its infancy, interest is growing in the application of such technologies in healthcare. For example, smartphone and wearable sensor technologies have already enabled a significant increase in the volume of patient information that can be collected unobtrusively and at low cost. The RADAR-CNS team believe such technologies can be used to monitor long-term outcomes of patients, at scale, and provide detailed information on outcomes. The resulting data can be made available for review in real time by patients, clinicians and researchers and at low cost, enabling medical services to offer more responsive and efficient care.
- Read the full story
- Visit the RADAR-CNS website and factsheet
Taking a tailored approach to type 2 diabetes
Diabetes is a chronic and incurable illness linked to blood sugar that has traditionally been divided into type 1 and type 2. Type 2 accounts for the vast majority of cases – some 285 million – and its prevalence is expected to soar over the coming decade. Amid this backdrop, IMI's RHAPSODY project set out to look more closely at type 2 in a bid to develop targeted treatments for the condition, which can vary significantly and cause serious complications such as kidney failure. In a major development, RHAPSODY – in conjunction with others including IMI's BEAT-DKD project – has broken type 2 diabetes down into five subgroups which need different treatments and have different progressions. And this, the researchers believe, has the potential to revolutionise how doctors deal with diabetics. ‘What RHAPSODY is really about is individualising diabetes treatment,’ says vice project coordinator Leif Groop of Lund University in Sweden. ‘For too long, we have had the situation that one size fits all.’ The subgroups grew out of a Swedish study known as ANDIS involving more than 13 000 diabetics and initiated by Groop. It monitored not only patients' blood sugar but also factors such as insulin resistance and secretion, as well as age. The study has since been replicated, including in China.
- Read the full story
- Visit the BEAT-DKD factsheet and website
- Visit the RHAPSODY factsheet and website
Fast, effective treatment for autoimmune rheumatic diseases
Affecting around 2 % of the population, autoimmune rheumatic diseases can have severe symptoms, including painful and swollen joints, fever, rashes, fatigue and sensitivity to the sun, with patients needing regular check-ups. Diagnosis can take a number of years from the onset of symptoms – too long to prevent negative outcomes. Moreover, wide variations exist between patients in terms of severity, prognosis and response to treatment, which renders therapy a trial-and-error process.
Researchers in IMI’s PRECISESADS project are gathering data on the molecular causes of various autoimmune rheumatic diseases and different patients’ clinical symptoms in order to facilitate the delivery of precision medicine based on earlier and more accurate diagnosis. ‘Blood samples from over 3 000 patients from across Europe with different autoimmune diseases have undergone in-depth analyses, unprecedented in the field of rheumatology research,’ explains project coordinator John Ioannou of UCB Biopharma in Belgium. ‘Data on genome, transcriptome, proteome, methylome and other biological parameters have been analysed with the identification of novel clusters of molecular signatures, which could form the basis for a brand new classification of these diseases and pave the way towards more tailored therapy.’
- Read the full story
- Visit the PRECISESADS factsheet and website